FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)The son of a Hamas founder served as a spy for Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Haaretz reported.
Mosab Hassan Yousef served for more than a decade as the Shin Bet’s most valuable source on Hamas. He converted to Christianity 10 years ago and left the West Bank in 2007 for California, where he now lives.
Yousef, 32, is the son of Sheik Hassan Yousef, a Hamas leader in the West Bank.
His intelligence, under the moniker of “The Green Prince,” led to the prevention of dozens of suicide bombing attacks and assassination attempts on Israeli officials, and the exposing of several terrorist cells, Haaretz reported Wednesday.
“Son of Hamas,” a book written by Yousef and Rob Brackin, will be released next week in the United States.
Yousef’s intelligence led to the arrest of Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, and other high-ranking Palestinian officials who planned suicide attacks, according to Haaretz.
A senior Hamas leader, Ismail Radwan, told the French news agency AFP that the Haaretz report was “baseless slander.”
“The Palestinian people have great confidence in Hamas and its struggle, and they will not be fooled by this slander and these lies of the Israeli occupation,” he said.
Palestinians Call for Intifada Over Heritage Sites
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Israel’s decision to include two West Bank sites as national heritage sites “a serious provocation which may lead to a religious war.”
Abbas made the comments in Brussels Tuesday regarding the addition of Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron to a list of 150 national heritage sites that Israel will rehabilitate and promote as part of a $100 million renovation and restoration plan.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah in Gaza called on Palestinians to launch a new intifada to protest the move.
“Jerusalem is ours, the land is ours and God is with us,” he said, according to reports. “We will not accept these decisions and they will have no ramifications” to the Palestinians.
An Islamic Jihad spokesman told Ynet Tuesday that his terrorist organization would begin attacking sites within Israel, not just in the West Bank, in reaction to the decision.
“If the Israelis continue to damage our mosques and holy places, we will respond within the Zionist territory,” a spokesman for the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, was quoted as saying.
“As far as we are concerned, the annexation of the mosques to the heritage sites is another move of aggression and a move aimed at completing the Judaization of the holy sites—and all the organizations are required to respond.”
The Ibrahami Mosque, a site holy to Muslims, is part of the Cave of the Patriarchs complex.
Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom called the Palestinians’ objection to calling the sites part of Israel’s national heritage “insolent and outrageous and another attempt to rewrite history.”
Shalom pointed out that both sites were purchased for their full value, as recorded in the Bible.
More Suspects Identified in Dubai Assassination
Another 15 suspects were identified in the assassination of a Hamas official, Dubai police announced.
Ten of the new suspects have the names of Israelis who hold dual citizenship, according to Haaretz.
Dubai last week released the names of 11 suspects with passports from Britain, Ireland, France and Germany in the assassination last month of top Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a hotel room in Dubai. Six of them were Israelis with dual citizenship.
Most of the passports are forged, according to Dubai officials.
Israel’s Mossad has come under international suspicion in the killing. Al-Mabhouh was the official responsible for arranging arms supplies from Iran to Gaza, and was a founder of the Hamas military wing, Izzadin Kassam. He also was involved in the 1989 kidnappings and murders of two Israeli soldiers, Avi Sasportas and Ilan Sa’adon.
The European Union has condemned the fraudulent use of the passports. Several EU countries have called in their ambassadors to Israel looking for explanations. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement.