The son of a founding member of Hamas has warned Israel must not “rejuvenate” the terrorist group by releasing its most dangerous members – including his father – from jail as part of a hostage deal.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, 46, is the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of Hamas’s foremost leaders in the West Bank. It had been expected that he would follow in his father’s footsteps and rise through the ranks to become a leading figure within Hamas.

But instead he was recruited to work for the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, at the age of 17, and went on to work as a spy for Israel’s security service for a decade.

During that time he attempted to break the “cycle of violence against innocent people” , and the intelligence he provided helped Israel to thwart terrorist attacks at the height of the second intifada.

Mr Yousef’s father has spent over 25 years in Israeli jails, according to the Palestinian Information Centre, having been arrested several times over the past two decades by the Israeli security services.

He is currently in an Israeli prison after being arrested on Oct 19, 2023 as part of the crackdown on Hamas following its Oct 7 invasion of southern Israel in which over 1,200 people were killed, and 254 taken into Gaza as hostages.