"My father, like many Hamas leaders, is ignorant of simply the historic right of the Israeli nation," Mosab Yousef told Israel TV Thursday. "I love Israeli people," he added.

Yousef moved to California in 2007 and converted from Islam to Christianity.

This is Yousef's first trip to Israel since he left for the U.S., Safadi said. The trip got off to a rocky start because he arrived without a visa and was detained at the airport for hours while authorities tried to sort out who he was, he added.

In his memoir, Yousef described growing up hating Israel and admiring the violently anti-Israel militant group his father helped found more than two decades ago. Israeli forces imprisoned him in 1996 after he bought weapons, but he says he became disillusioned with Hamas while in prison.

He began working with Israel's Shin Bet security service, which routinely tries to recruit Palestinians of all factions as informers, including those in prisons, by using blackmail or promising benefits, such as work or travel permits.