'Son of Hamas' joins Israeli public diplomacy campaign

(JNS) - Mosab Hassan Yousef, also known as "The Green Prince," the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has joined Israel's public diplomacy campaign amid Israel's war against the terror group.

Yousef, who rejected terrorism and went to work helping fight against it, arrived in Israel and toured the areas of the Oct. 7 massacre in the Western Negev.

Referring to Hamas's Charter calling for the genocide of Jews, he said, "The people that wrote the Hamas Covenant are a bunch of lunatics," adding, "The Arab world needs to pay attention to the dangers within."

Hamas, he said, "does not care about people. In effect, they are sacrificing the lives of children and non-combatants in order to achieve cheap political goals. The concept of jihad must be stopped, and it must be stopped now."

Yousef has been a vocal critic of any negotiations with Hamas and since Oct. 7 has called on Israel to destroy the terror group.

Yousef, 45, was born in Ramallah and became involved in Hamas activities as a youth. He was viewed as an eventual successor to his father in the terror organization. But while in Israel's Megiddo Prison during his early adulthood, Yousef began to question Hamas's ideology and tactics and became disillusioned with the organization.

He accepted an offer from the Israel Security Agency to become an informer on condition that Israel would try to arrest, not kill, the targets of his intelligence tips.

As the son of Sheikh Yousef, he was privy to many Hamas plans. For around a decade, the intelligence he provided the ISA foiled numerous suicide bombing attacks and assassination attempts, and exposed terror cells. Within the ISA, he was referred to as "The Green Prince."

In 2010, Yousef published his autobiography, "Son of Hamas." He converted to Christianity and currently lives in the United States.

Sheikh Yousef has been in and out of Israeli prisons for years. Israel arrested him in Ramallah on Oct. 19 during a crackdown on Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks.

In November, Mosab Hassan Yousef called on Israel to set a time limit for Hamas to release the remaining 136 Israeli hostages, and to kill his father and other Hamas leaders if they don't.

"Hamas must have a timeframe-a month or two or six months-to return the hostages, and if they don't return the hostages within the time frame, Israel must execute top Hamas leaders in prison, especially the mass murderers," said Yousef in a video message posted online.

"When I say execute top Hamas leaders, I mean no exceptions. That includes my own father, the co-founder of the Hamas movement. In this war, there are no exceptions," added Yousef. "I made a mistake, 10 or 15 years ago, when I saved his life many times...he was supposed to die for his actions. I saved his life. Things did not change, things got worse," he added.

He warned that Hamas is intentionally dragging out negotiations to extend the ceasefire with Israel.

"Hamas is going nowhere, and if we continue to negotiate with them, they will continue stretching these negotiations, taking us into a rabbit hole that will never end. And this is their goal: to get away with their crimes. We cannot allow this to happen," he stressed.