Mosab Hassan Yousef has lived an extraordinary life. Born in Ramallah, Yousef spent his youth involved in Hamas activities. That was expected of him, given that his father, Hassan Yousef, is one of the founders of the Islamist movement. Growing up, Mosab Yousef embraced his father’s ideology and was arrested by Israeli authorities multiple times, starting at age 10, for crimes such as throwing stones at Israeli settlers and purchasing guns. But during a stint in Israeli prison in the late ’90s, at age 18, something changed. Or maybe a better way of putting it is that he flipped: he became an Israeli informant.
Eventually, he became Israel’s most valuable intelligence asset, foiling suicide bombings and other terror attacks. Yousef has since been outspoken not just about Hamas, but about radical Islamic terrorism more generally. In 2008 he converted to Christianity, shortly before he was granted asylum in the United States.
For a while Yousef stopped doing press and seemed to be trying to live a quiet life—away from the media and the death threats. But after Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 more on October 7, Yousef is speaking out once again against the terrorist group he knows all too well.
That’s why he sat down with Free Press columnist Douglas Murray in Tel Aviv recently.
Yousef is unsparing in his assessment of the movement he grew up in and the damage it has done to Palestinian society. Hamas, he says, has created a generation of “people willing to destroy themselves. . . to cause the most destruction possible.”
But even Yousef, who understands the hate that fuels Hamas better than most, was shocked by the attack on October 7. “I was surprised not by Hamas’s brutality, but by the scale of the event,” he says. “There is no human language that can describe the evil that took place on October 7. And that’s not just a war crime. It’s not just killing. It’s a genocide.”
What makes such evil possible? The answer lies in the hate-filled beliefs that Yousef’s father helped spread. “Jihadists think that they are the sword of God on Earth,” Mosab tells Douglas. “That they are actually manifesting the punishment against the Jewish people for being disobedient.”
Yousef’s unique perspective—and his moral clarity—makes him an essential voice right now. It’s also what makes his interview with Douglas required viewing. Their conversation is available now for paid subscribers to The Free Press. So if you’re not already subscribed, do so today.
And watch the video here:
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