Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices

In August 2001, Israel assassinated the political leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, even though he was not credibly tied to any acts of violence. Then, in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the Palestinian cause was tainted in the public eye “as the world shouted with one voice against terrorism—any terrorism, for any cause” (173). Violence continued unabated, “an eye for an eye—and there was no shortage of eyes” (174). Yousef also became friendly with Saleh Talahme, a suspected Hamas leader. He ate often with his family and accepted his tutoring in a difficult college course. In March 2002, a group of suicide bombers from Jordan came to Yousef’s home and stashed explosives. He reported this to Shin Bet, and Yousef managed to convince them not to kill the bombers but instead to wait and gather more intelligence. Police were able to apprehend all but one of them. When one mentioned Yousef as a collaborator, they deported him to Jordan rather than imprisoning him so that the others would think that he was the spy instead. With his cover still fragile, the Shin Bet pondered arresting Yousef again or sending the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to conduct a real attack on him to allay any remaining suspicions. Yousef was given one minute’s notice to flee his house, and then helicopters and tanks showed up in his neighborhood. The entire event was recorded on Al-Jazeera, and after the IDF fired hundreds of bullets and even launched a rocket, they realized that they had missed their target. Yousef here earned the reputation of “a dangerous terrorist” and would struggle to stay alive, protect his father, and continue his work for Shin Bet (182).

The violence of the Intifada continued to escalate into the spring of 2002, with deadlier suicide attacks and brutal retaliations from the Israeli military. Loai informed Yousef that the IDF would launch an operation called Defensive Shield to capture all suspected Hamas leaders and effectively reoccupy the West Bank. Yousef decided to witness the operation and watched as a tank crushed his father’s car. He ran into the town, finding himself caught between a group of Fatah fighters and IDF soldiers, but he was able to find a phone and ask Loai to call off the IDF before they were able to search Hassan’s apartment. The IDF lay siege to Arafat’s compound in Ramallah, forcing a mass evacuation in the hope of catching high-level targets. They made them strip to avoid the risk of explosives, but their clothes also had their identification cards, leaving security forces unable to distinguish between wanted men and police. The local Palestinian Authority official let all the guilty men go as revenge for the destruction of the compound. Hundreds of Palestinians would die during Operation Defensive Shield, along with dozens of Israelis, but Yousef also helped Shin Bet capture major Hamas leaders.

After a devastating suicide attack on the Hebrew University, a suspect (under torture) identified someone known as “the Sheikh,” later identified as Ibrahim Hamed, although no one could find him. Yousef was still a fugitive and unable to keep working for USAID while the Israelis had the city on lockdown. Shin Bet counseled Yousef to break into the Ober military base for meetings and reinforce his militant reputation if he were to be caught. With Loai’s guidance, he successfully contacted his handlers, and it became a routine way to meet. Meanwhile, he maintained contacts with wanted Hamas operatives, as well as attending Christian meetings. When his father narrowly avoided getting caught up in a raid, Yousef “could not explain away the sense of supernatural protection and intervention. It was real to [him]” (198). Shortly thereafter, Yousef was driving with someone on Israel’s kill list, and a voice inside his head told him to turn left. He later learned that he would have been the victim of an air strike had he continued straight. He came to believe that he was under divine protection, as his Christian friends were praying for him.

Yousef’s multiple roles began to take a toll on him. He asked the Shin Bet to imprison him so that he could later be released and sent back to school. He also requested the arrest of his father to protect him against the risk of assassination. Both were promptly arrested, and Yousef was returned to the slaughterhouse, where his frequent conversations with Shin Bet gave him a reputation as “a really tough guy who gave no information to the Israelis, even under torture” (204). He was then transferred to his father’s cell and then Ofer Prison, where he continued his studies in Christianity. One of his former reading-group friends had converted from Judaism to Christianity and then “refused to put on a uniform and go to the West Bank” despite the Israeli policy of universal conscription (206). For this, he was put in prison, unbeknownst to Yousef at the time, in a different wing of the same facility. After being sentenced to six months administration detention, Yousef was placed in another outdoor prison. One day, he was enraged to find two fellow prisoners preparing to burn books for fuel, and they let him have novels to broaden his English vocabulary. Yousef was released in April 2003, with Loai telling him, “Welcome home, Green Prince […] We missed you very much. A lot has been happening, and we didn’t know what to do without you” (209). Shortly thereafter, he learned that the bombmaker Barghouti had been arrested and that his friend Saleh had been found.

As much as Yousef regretted having to pursue his friend Saleh, he understood that it was necessary to save many innocent lives. His Christian convictions led him to insist to Shin Bet that they capture rather than kill him, and “very reluctantly, they agreed” (211). Shin Bet decided to put added pressure on the Al-Qassem Brigades. In a raid on a Ramallah compound, the military used heavy artillery fire that caused many casualties, and Saleh was killed. With so much of Hamas’s leadership dead or in prison, Yousef was “the contact for the leaders in Gaza and Damascus. Somehow, [he] had become a key contact for the entire Palestinian network of parties, sects, organizations, and cells—including terrorist cells” (214). The next target was Ibrahim Hamed, whose family would not give his whereabouts.

Yasser Arafat died on November 3. A week later, Hassan was released from prison, with Israel seeing him as a potential partner in peace negotiations. Hassan then attended Arafat’s grave as a way of signaling goodwill between the rival factions. However, Hassan was not the leader of Hamas, and the identity of the real leader remained unclear. Hassan insisted that no one was in charge, even when widows of killed Hamas leaders called asking for money to help feed their children. Searching for a potential connection, Yousef identified a suspicious-looking man at an internet café in Ramallah, who soon afterward offered to buy a house that Yousef was selling. With the help of Shin Bet, they researched the name Aziz Kayed. They found that, like other suspected leaders of Hamas, “These guys ha[d] advanced university degrees and were at one time very active in Hamas. […] Now, they all live[d] very normal lives, completely removed from political involvement” (220). Shin Bet suspected that this was a cover for serving as the real leadership of Hamas. After a long period of surveillance, they tracked one of them to a garage, from which the long-sought-after Ibrahim Hamed eventually emerged and surrendered. For Yousef, this “proved to be [his] most important operation for the Shin Bet. It was also [his] final one” (221).