Israeli occupation forces arrested one of the top West Bank leaders of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, in a raid near Ramallah overnight on Monday.

Israeli occupation forces arrested one of the top West Bank leaders of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, in a raid near Ramallah overnight on Monday.

"During the night, forces of the army and the Shin Bet (internal security service) arrested Hassan Yusef, a Hamas leader, in Beitunia, southwest of Ramallah," an occupation army statement said on Tuesday.

Yusef's arrest was confirmed by the Palestinian security services.
"Yusef has been arrested and imprisoned several times in the past," the statement added.

Yusef, who was a founding member of Hamas in the late 1980s, has spent years in Israeli jails. He was elected to the Palestinian parliament from prison in 2006 and was only released from his last stint in jail in June.

Yusef made headlines during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, of 2000-2005 when he renounced his son after he admitted to informing for the Shin Bet under the codename Green Prince.