Hamas Co-Founder Hassan Yousef Released After 2+ Years in Israeli Administrative Detention

Hassan Yousef, a 71-year-old senior Hamas leader and co-founder of the group in the West Bank, was released by Israeli authorities on Thursday after approximately two and a half years in administrative detention without charge. He was freed near the southern West Bank city of Hebron and subsequently taken to a hospital in Ramallah, where footage showed him in a hospital bed with his arm in a sling; he was reportedly heard telling family members he could not sleep due to pain, though the source of his injury remains unknown. Yousef had been detained since October 19, 2023, arrested at his home near Ramallah as part of a broader wave of arrests of Hamas operatives in the West Bank following the October 7 attacks. Hamas issued an official statement congratulating Yousef on his release, noting he has spent more than 20 years in Israeli custody cumulatively over his lifetime. Israel's administrative detention system permits authorities to hold individuals for renewable six-month periods without charge or trial; Israel argues the system is necessary to prevent attacks while gathering evidence, but critics and human rights groups contend it is widely abused. Yousef is estranged from his eldest son Mosab Hassan Yousef, who famously spied on Hamas for Israel's Shin Bet from 1997 to 2007 and later wrote the memoir 'Son of Hamas.' This is not Yousef's first release from administrative detention; he was previously freed in July 2020 after 16 months of imprisonment.