RAMALLAH, (The Palestine Information Centre) The senior Hamas official Hassan Yousef has stressed that he will continue defending Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque by all means possible.
In a statement following his release on Sunday, the Hamas leader reiterated his willingness to continue defending Jerusalem, adding that his last arrest was for charges that he participated in the funeral of a Palestinian martyr in Jerusalem.
Earlier today, the Israeli occupation authority released Sheikh Yousef after he spent 20 months in Ofer jail, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs.
The last time he was taken prisoner happened on December 13, 2021, after Israeli forces raided his home in Beitunia town, west of Ramallah.
Sheikh Yousef, 65, was arrested 20 times and spent 24 years in Israeli prisons. His first arrest was in 1971 when he was 16 years old.
His second arrest came in the early nineties and ended with his forced banishment to the Marj al-Zuhour in southern Lebanon along with 417 Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders.
