Israel Arrests West Bank Hamas Leader

Israel has rearrested a top leader of the Hamas movement in the West Bank, just weeks after releasing him from jail, the Israeli military and Hamas sources said Thursday.

Hassan Yousef was detained on Wednesday night as he tried to cross a checkpoint between the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus, a Hamas source told Agence France Presse.

The Israeli military confirmed it had detained Yousef, who was released from prison in early August after serving a six-year term for "membership of a terrorist organization," but declined to give any additional details.

Yousef was freed on August 4 as part of a mass release of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners due to overcrowding. He had six weeks left of his sentence.

Last March, Yousef disowned his son after he admitted to having spied on Hamas for Israel and played a major role in the arrest of senior militants.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, 32, said he was a top informer for Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency and was known by the codename "The Green Prince."

He converted to Christianity 10 years ago and now lives in California.

He reportedly worked for the Shin Bet at the height of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which began in 2000, when Hamas carried out dozens of suicide bombings and Israel waged all-out war on the Islamist movement.

Hamas has said the elder Yousef worked entirely in the public political wing of the movement. He was elected to the Palestinian parliament in 2006, while in Israeli custody.