Hamas founder’s son says ‘barbaric’ group must be removed

(NewsNation) — The son of a Hamas co-founder condemned the group as “barbaric” and cast aside concerns about civilians casualties, telling NewsNation “war is war.”

Mosab Hassan Yousef, who defected to Israel and worked undercover for the intelligence service Shin Bet from 1997 to 2007, believes Hamas must be removed from power.

“We’re talking about (an) organization that does not regard human life,” Yousef said Thursday on “CUOMO.” “This is not their first war against Israel. We have previous wars where (Hamas) initiated the war against Israel and the world and the global public bent so fast, and we begged for a cease-fire in the past three wars against Hamas, and Israel had to submit to the public opinion, and we did not finish them in the previous three wars. Every time, they came back stronger.”

Israeli has been engaged in heavy aerial bombardments of the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack carried out by Hamas. Militants broke through the wall that separates Gaza and Israel and tore through kibbutzim, killing more than 1,400 people and taking some 250 people hostage.

Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas from Gaza and says the group — a designated terrorist organization by both the U.S. and Israel — is ultimately responsible for any civilian deaths because its fighters hide among them. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says more than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed in the bombing campaign.

The Israeli military moved troops into Gaza earlier this week and says it has now has Gaza City nearly surrounded.

Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the co-founders of Hamas. The younger Yousef spent time in Israeli prisons several times and told The New York Post in 2021 that he saw a light after a stint in jail with some of his father’s comrades in the mid-1990s. He said he witnessed Hamas inmates brutally beat collaborators with Israel.

He became one himself in 1997, working as an informant for Shin Bet.

Now, he says Hamas is responsible for worsening Israeli-Palestinian relations.

“This problem has been going on for 35 years. This is Hamas, and they have been trying so hard to annihilate the state of Israel, risking the Palestinian lives and risking the civilians in the entire region,” Yousef said.

Israel has warned civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate south, sometimes dropping leaflets on cities warning of future airstrikes. Still, humanitarian groups have called for a cease-fire to get aid into the territory, and the United Nations said this week a strike on the Jabaliya refugee camp could “amount to war crimes.”

“Israel is not responsible for any harm that happens to this civilians in northern Gaza staying,” Yousef argued. “My heart breaks for the death of the Gaza people, but I have been saying this for over 20 years: Hamas is dangerous.”