Hassan Yousef, the son of a Hamas group co-founder, urged Israel to assassinate leaders of the terror group after the Friday ceasefire to “teach them a lesson,” The New York Post reported Saturday.
“Assassinating Hamas leadership will not destroy Hamas, but it will teach them a lesson,” Yousef told the Post. “Next time, before you get civilians on both sides involved in a bloodbath, you need to think 1,000 times. This is my personal suggestion.” (RELATED: ‘My Country Is At War’: Gal Gadot Posts Heartbreaking Message Amid Israel-Palestinian Conflict)
Mosab Hassan Yousef was raised to be a leader in the Palestinian terrorist organization but converted to Christianity and sought asylum in the United States after witnessing Hamas operatives torture and murder Israelis, according to the Post.
“Hundreds of children have paid the price. These type of people cannot get away with what they did. They should not feel safe for a day,” he continued in the interview. “Hamas hates Israel more than they love their own children.”
GAZA CITY, GAZA – (Photo by Fatima Shbair/Getty Images)
The current unrest is due to Hamas’ increasing marginalization and the peace deals that benefitted Israel in recent years, Yousef argued.
“Hamas was very disappointed by the Abraham Accords that ignored them completely,” he said. “It’s the new reality that [former] President Donald Trump made in the region. This is a new reality and Hamas is not prepared to accept it.”
The Abraham Accords, organized by the Trump administration in September 2020, was created to enhance diplomatic relations in the Middle East and ensure peace. The former president also moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem in a gesture intended to recognize Israeli sovereignty.
Yousef began secretly collaborating with Israel’s internal security service in 1997 with the code name “The Green Prince” and became a U.S. citizen in 2018, The New York Post reported.
“During [the mid-1990s], Hamas tortured and killed hundreds of prisoners. Many, if not all, had nothing to do with Israeli intelligence,” he told the Post. “I will never forget their screams. I started asking myself a question. What if Hamas succeeded in destroying Israel and building a state. Will they destroy our people this way?”
His father disowned Yousef after his conversion and indicated Hamas operatives could kill him.
“[My father] publicly declared, ‘He is not my son,’ which means if you want to get him, I am not going to stop you or come after you. He made my blood halal,” he said.
His brother Suheib Yousef broke from Hamas in 2019 and reportedly told Israeli media the group is a “racist terror organization that is dangerous for the Palestinian people.”