Mosab Hassan Yousef
Mosab Hassan YousefReuters

Israel on Thursday released a founding member of the Hamas terrorist organization in Judea and Samaria, the terror group claimed, a year after he and hundreds of other Hamas terrorists were arrested following the murder of three Israeli teenagers last June.

Hamas claims that Hassan Yousef, a seasoned terrorist leader who has spent years in jail and was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) parliament in 2006 while in Israeli custody, has worked entirely in the "political wing" of the terror group, which largely leads the diplomatic offensive against Israel and secures weapons and backing.

He is also known for having disowned his son, Mosab Hassan Yousef, after he worked as an informant for the Israel Security Agency (ISA) under the codename "The Green Prince."

"Occupation forces (Israel) on Thursday released Hassan Yousef after he was in administrative detention for an entire year," Hamas said in a report on its website, Hamas.ps.

The IDF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If the Hamas report is true, the release comes amid unprecedented concessions Israel is making in time for the Muslim fast month of Ramadan, allowing access from Gaza to Jerusalem and direct buses for Arabs from Judea and Samaria to the Temple Mount - the holiest site in Judaism.

Yousef's 36-year-old son, Mosab Hassan Yousef, went public several years ago with having been a top source of inside information on Hamas's terror activities in the service of Israel's domestic security service during the Second Intifada that began in 2000, when Hamas carried out dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks against the Jewish state.

He has since reportedly converted to Christianity and fled to the United States, and likewise published an auto-biography of his fascinating work thwarting Hamas's terror schemes.

AFP contributed to this report.