The son of a leading Hamas figure in the West Bank, who converted to Christianity, served for over a decade as the Israeli security service's most valuable source in the Palestinian movemen's leadership, the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday. Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of Hamas founders and one of its prominent leaders in the West Bank. The intelligence he supplied Israel led to the exposure of a number of Hamas cells, and to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures, the newspaper added.
Yousef, 32, became a devout Christian 10 years ago and now lives in California after fleeing the West Bank in 2007 and going public with his conversion.
Yousef was considered Israel's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership. During al Aqsa intifada, intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of a number of high-ranking Palestinian figures responsible for planning suicide bombings. These included Ibrahim Hamid - a Hamas military commander in the West Bank, Marwan Barghouti - founder of the Fatah-linked Tanzim militia and Abdullah Barghouti - a Hamas bomb-maker. Yousef was also responsible for thwarting Israel's plan to assassinate his father.
