The debate on Al Jazeera, during which Hamas Sheikh Hassan Yousef (bottom left) stormed off, because he didn’t want to share the panel with Israeli spokesman Ofir Gendelman (bottom right). Photo: Screenshot.

Senior Hamas official Sheikh Hassan Yousef stormed off the set of an Al Jazeera debate yesterday, when he discovered he was sharing the panel with Ofir Gendelman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Arab media adviser, Israeli news website nrg reported on Sunday.

Expressing outrage as having to be in the same broadcast with a “liar, cheat and criminal” such as Gendelman, Yousef, refused to continue the interview.

Later, Gendelman responded to Yousef through the following Arabic post on Facebook:

What a shame! I would like to take this opportunity to thank his [Yousef’s] son, Mosab, who worked for the Shin Bet for years, and whose courage, humanity and dedication to human life saved hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians whom Hamas planned to kill in brutal terrorist attacks.

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Mosab Yousef, known in Israel and the West as the “Son of Hamas” or the “Green Prince” (the title of a 2014 documentary film about his life), is Sheikh Hassan’s eldest son. Deciding to take revenge on Israel for repeatedly arresting his father, Mosab was going to obtain weapons and perpetrate a terrorist attack. But he was arrested by Israeli security services before he had the chance to execute his plan.

During the period of his investigation, he decided to reject Hamas’ ideology, and became an informant for Israel, passing on valuable information about Hamas operatives and operations during the second intifada.

Nrg referred bemusedly to Gendelman’s post as a blow “below the belt.”

Watch a clip of the testy exchange below (Arabic):