RAMALLAH, Palestine
Israel is expected to release senior Hamas leader Hassan Yousef on Thursday, a local NGO said.
“Israeli authorities are expected to release Hassan Yousef, member of the (Palestinian) Legislative Council and leader in the Hamas movement, after he served 12 months in jail,” the Ahrar Center for Prisoner Studies and Human Rights said in a statement.
Israeli forces had detained Hassan Yousef along with a number of other Hamas leaders in the West Bank in June 2014, during the disappearance of three teenage Jewish settlers near the southern West Bank city of Al-Khalil (Hebron).
An Israeli military court renewed his administrative detention three times since he was arrested and he is now languishing in the Ofer Detention Center in the west of Ramallah city.
Yousef has been detained many times before and has spent around 18 years in Israeli prisons. According to the Ahrar Center, 10 members of the Legislative Council are still in Israeli prisons.
Israeli forces sporadically raid Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and detain local Palestinians, claiming the latter are wanted by Israeli security agencies.
Over 6,500 Palestinians are currently languishing in prisons throughout Israel, according to official Palestinian figures.
