West Bank Hamas leader released from Israeli prison

A West Bank Hamas leader who was arrested last year by Israel as part of a massive search to find three Israeli teenagers who were abducted and later found dead has been released from prison, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

Hassan Yousef, an elected representative in the Palestinian parliament, was being held without trial in administrative detention at the Ofer prison near the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

It was not made immediately clear from the report whether Israeli authorities planned to press charges against Yousef.

The Hamas leader was among more than 80 Palestinians arrested last June across the West Bank, including former ministers and other members of parliament, in an effort to find Eyal Yifrach, Gil-ad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel, who were abducted on June 12 as they hitchhiked in the West Bank.

The teens’ bodies were later found in a field north of the city.

Yousef is also known as the father of Mosab Hassan Yousef, a Hamas defector who turned against the organization and converted to Christianity, going public about his experiences in a book, and more recently a film, “The Green Prince.”

Israel routinely employs administrative detention to hold Palestinian security prisoners for extended periods of time, without trial or indictment.

According to the Israeli human rights group B’tselem, 396 Palestinians – including one woman – were being held in administrative detention in Israeli prisons as of March 2015.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.