Israel releases senior Hamas leader

Israel today released a senior West Bank leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas after he finished a two-year prison sentence.

Clutching a black plastic bag with his belongings, Sheik Hassan Yussef walked out of the Ofer military jail to his waiting family this morning.

Israel has arrested or killed dozens of senior figures in the militant Islamic group over the last four years of fighting, leaving Yussef, who was the Hamas spokesman in the West Bank, as the most senior Hamas figure in the West Bank.

The military had no immediate comment on his release.