Hamas co-founder Sheik Hassan Yousef arrested in Israel raid
A senior Hamas leader was arrested in the West Bank early Thursday, hours after he gave an interview to The Globe and Mail.
Israeli and Palestinian media reported that Sheik Hassan Yousef, the top political leader of Hamas in the West Bank, was arrested as part of a large-scale Israeli raid into Ramallah, Hebron and other cities that saw five people killed and dozens of people detained. He was placed under administrative detention, a method used by Israeli security forces to detain someone without trial, and for reasons that are kept secret.
On Wednesday, Sheik Yousef told The Globe and Mail in an exclusive interview that he believed “mistakes” may have been made during the Oct. 7 Hamas invasion of Israel that left more than 1,400 Israelis dead. The assault prompted a furious Israeli backlash that has already killed more than 3,400 Palestinians as Israel has laid siege to the Gaza Strip and pummeled it with air strikes.
He said he had no foreknowledge of the attack, which he said went off the rails when more and more militants – including some not controlled by Hamas – entered Israel after the border fence was breached by Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades.
Sheik Yousef told The Globe that he believed Hamas would be willing to release the women, children and foreigners among the estimated 200 hostages who were taken to Gaza following the invasion – if Israel would agree to a 24-hour ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to reach the strip.
“We have hostages who are our guests, and we don’t have an issue with these hostages,” he said, speaking at his family home in Ramallah. He was responding to a question from The Globe about why Hamas was holding people like Vivian Silver – a 74-year-old grandmother and peace activist with roots in Winnipeg. “When the circumstances allow, we will release them.”
Ms. Silver has been missing since the Oct. 7 attack on communities in southern Israel, including Kibbutz Be’eri, where she lived.
Sheik Yousef called on the international community to negotiate a break in hostilities so that some of the hostages could be safely released. “We are ready. Let it be. But the attack has to stop.”
Spokespeople for Israel’s foreign and defence ministries did not reply to requests for comment on Sheik Yousef’s remarks.
Just before meeting The Globe and Mail, Sheik Yousef took part in protests, and led prayers by demonstrators, in the centre of Ramallah. Protesters shouted they were willing to sacrifice themselves for Gaza, and also called for the fall of the Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
It’s unclear to what extent the 68-year-old politician and religious scholar speaks for the armed wing in Gaza. As one of the founders, his views are respected throughout the movement – but he said he has not spoken to anyone from the al-Qassam Brigades since the invasion because of security concerns, as well as poor cellular and WiFi connections in Gaza.
The West Bank is under Israeli military occupation, with the Palestinian Authority having limited governing powers there. Gaza has been ruled by Hamas, which ousted the PA shortly after Israel withdrew its soldiers and settlers from the strip in 2005.
In the interview, Sheik Yousef – who has spent nearly 25 years in Israeli prisons and was most recently released from administrative detention in July – said he expected he could be re-arrested at any time. “Every day I wait,” he said on Wednesday afternoon as his wife poured coffee and his two young daughters listened in on the conversation. “Two days ago, the army was right in front of my house.”
The only topics Sheik Yousef would not answer questions about were regarding two of his six sons. His oldest son, Mosab, now 45, was disowned by his father after it was revealed that he spent a decade working undercover for Israel’s Shin Bet security service. His youngest son, Suhib, was also ostracized after calling Hamas corrupt and “a racist terror organization that is dangerous for the Palestinian people” in an interview on Israeli television.
Mosab is widely known in Israel and the Palestinian Territories as “The Green Prince.” Sheik Yousef’s daughters told The Globe that they only had four brothers.
This article was reported by Globe and Mail
