Son of Hamas Leader Chooses Christ

There will be no peace for either Jews or Muslims until they give their lives to the One this life is for, urged Mosab Hassan Yousef, who once served Hamas, but now serves Jesus Christ.

As the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Hamas founder and leader, Mosab was groomed from a young age to take over his father’s legacy and power. But the Muslim terrorist organization’s brutality and utter disregard for human life — including the lives of their own people — moved him to search for truth outside of Islam. 

His quest brought him to the Bible, where Jesus’ teaching, “Love your enemies” (Luke 6:27), gripped the young Muslim to the core. “Killing your enemy is an easy thing to do, but loving your enemy is the real challenge,” he said in a Vision Unsealed video. 

“When I saw in Jesus how hard He was on people with self-righteousness, it made also perfect sense to me. And when I saw Jesus Christ liberating people from religion and fulfilling religion with His grace, that also touched my heart. This is what Muslims have been missing.”

The more he read the Bible and listened to sermons on Jesus’ teachings, the more the Truth began to transform him. After a British missionary shared the gospel with him, Mosab gradually embraced Christianity and turned his back on Islam. In 2005, a Christian tourist secretly baptized him in the Mediterranean Sea at Tel Aviv.

All his life, Mosab had been taught to hate Israel, but after spending time in Megiddo Prison he saw Israelis in a different light. “I was conditioned in my society to hate Israel as the ultimate enemy of the Palestinian people, an enemy that we blamed everything on,” he said. “I saw Israel as the devil. But when you go on a journey and you have direct observation and you have experience with what (is a) so-called enemy, your truth is going to be superior because it’s firsthand experience. It’s not coming from the mullah, from the imam, from the sheikhs. It’s not coming from the politicians.”

While in that prison, Mosab witnessed his fellow Hamas inmates brutally torture and kill hundreds of prisoners from their own terrorist organization, accusing them of collaborating with Israel, even without evidence. In stark contrast, he found Israel’s interrogation methods humane.

“Little by little, I started to learn that Israel is not our enemy. Israel is just another nation — people, children, women, elders — and they’re seeking life,” he explained. “Israel is a democratic country, … not a dictatorship (or) an ideological terrorist organization. There are Muslims, there are Christians, there are Arabs who live in the state of Israel and all of them serve the Israeli constitution…. Hamas dragged Israel to this war and used Palestinian children and innocent civilians as a shield.”

That’s when Mosab decided to work undercover for Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service. He became their most valuable source in Hamas leadership from 1997 to 2007, providing information that exposed numerous terrorist cells and helped Israel track down militants, preventing the loss of many lives.

His father disowned him, of course, and Mosab has faced constant persecution on many fronts. “Yes, I am paying a high price today of losing my family, but at least I didn’t lose myself,” he said. “Being killed is not the worst thing can happen, but if my soul is dead, if I feel the responsibility and I don’t say a word of truth, I will die every day.”

About 98% of Israel and 99% of Palestine is unreached with the gospel. And yet, only through Jesus will Palestinians and Jews find lasting peace. “So I invite them to accept (Jesus) as Lord and Savior, as their God. If Jesus Christ becomes their highest authority, their lives, their hearts, their societies, their families, everything will change to the better.” 

Lord, thank You for the way You changed Mosab’s life by the power of Your grace. You changed hatred to love. What greater position is there in this world than to be a son of the Most High, joint heir with Christ in His Kingdom? Even though he lost his family, his citizenship and his place in Hamas, he found what matters most and now has peace. Thank You, Lord. Please bring to him many Muslims, Jews and people of all religions and nationalities who are seeking truth. Open their eyes to see You as the One they are searching for, and open up conversations that lead them to salvation. Meet them in their dreams. Talk to them throughout the day. Awaken their hearts to long for something more than what they have known of religion and life. Give them a longing for You. Make a way for every person in Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and beyond to hear Your good news and be saved. Tear down every wall of anger, violence, prejudice, religion and hatred, and break the chains that bind them to the enemy’s purposes. Pierce through the cloud of darkness that hangs over their homes and fill their lands with Your glorious light. March in Your angel armies to watch over the children, women and elderly in Gaza. Be a shield around the hostages held by Hamas. Make a way for all of them to get out safely. But also make a way for every Hamas militant to hear Your good news. Break the chains that bind them to demons of religion, abuse, violence and murder. Give them a hunger for You so deep they will seek You until they find You, just like Mosab did. Even now, Hamas is training young children to use guns, rocks and other weapons to fight against those they see as “enemies,” when their real enemy is Satan and the evil things Hamas is pushing them to do. Give young people courage to stand for what is right and to choose Jesus’ path to “love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.” Raise up Palestinian Christians who will pray for lost Muslims and boldly share Your love despite the danger of persecution. Abundantly bless every Christian in Palestinian areas, especially now that provisions are hard to get. Use them to bless those in need. Give them favor with their neighbors, with militia and other authorities. As they share the good news, lift the veil from the eyes of the lost so they can see You as You truly are and surrender to Your love. Make a way, Lord, for a church planting movement to begin underground and then take over all of Palestine, even pushing across borders. May the people of Gaza and the West Bank worship You alone as God and Christ as their Savior. And may the people of Israel believe in the Messiah who died for their sins, worshipping You alone as Lord and King and Savior. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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