The son of a Hamas co-founder has given Israel “permission” to kill his father if the terrorist organization does not release all the remaining hostages.
Mosab Hassan Yousef – the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef – has called for Israel to give Hamas a time frame to release all the hostages or says they should kill its leaders, including his father.
“Israel cannot continue like this…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,” he said in a 10-minute video posted to X. on Tuesday.
“When I say execute top leaders, I mean no exceptions, that includes my own father,” he continued. “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.”
Yousef said he gave the war-torn country “permission to execute all Hamas top leaders in prison” before saying Israel should continue after them in Gaza and Qatar.
“If this is what Hamas wants, the release of those mass murderers, then in my opinion this is the head of the snake,” he said, referring to Israeli prisons.
The 45-year-old, who worked undercover as a spy for Israel between 1997 and 2007, said killing Hamas leaders and returning the Israeli hostages would “guarantee” the “defeat of Hamas.”
Yousef said he disagreed with Israel’s compromise of releasing prisoners in exchange for hostages, because the former inmates would go on to kill “many more innocent people” and that the criminals shouldn’t be “rewarded” for their crimes.
He said he “understood” why Israel “compromised,” but said the country should treat the hostages as “war prisoners” and to “shift its priority from a hostage rescue mission to an offensive that focuses on eradicating Hamas.”
However, he said Israel should still be careful to avoid harming civilians while targeting Hamas.
“I know Israel has avoided targeting civilians, but at this stage, we try even more carefully and we be more precise in our targets,” he said.
Yousef’s father was last released from an Israeli prison in July of this year after spending 21 months in jail for administrative detention. The Hamas leader has been in and out of prison for more around two decades, according to the Middle East Monitor.
Over the course of several days, Hamas has been releasing groups of hostages in exchange for prisoners.
The Israeli Red Cross received the sixth group on Wednesday, with an estimated 12 hostages being released.