A leading terrorist and the father of a Palestinian double agent who wrote a book about his covert work exposing Hamas' activity has been arrested in the West Bank.

Sheikh Hassan Yousef was one of the founders of Hamas and was released from prison only last month.

The Israeli military did not specify the reason for the arrest, but Mr Yousef is well known as a key figure of Hamas’s military wing in the West Bank.

Some of what is known about him comes from his son, Mosab Hassan Yousef.

Mosab Yousef, who converted to Christianity and now lives in California, spent a decade as an undercover Hamas operative, secretly supplying Israel’s intelligence service with crucial and lifesaving information.

As an informant, he secured a promise that Israel would not assassinate his father.