Israel's president Shimon Peres is among the many who owe their lives to the son of a founder of Hamas, according to a dramatic account to be published this week.

The full story of how Mosab Hassan Yousef became an informant for Shin Bet, the Israeli domestic security service, will reveal the heroic risks he took during a decade as a spy for Israel - and the extraordinary impact he has had on the course of history in the Middle East.

He describes his remarkable double life as a top Israeli agent codenamed the "Green Prince", his conversion to Christianity and how he swapped the West Bank for the West Coast in his book, Son of Hamas.

The disclosure that among his activities he thwarted a 2001 plot to blow up Mr Peres, then foreign minister and now the Israeli head of state, will also heighten the risk he now faces himself from potential assassins.

According to Mr Yousef's account - confirmed by his Shin Bet handler to Haaretz newspaper - he was serving as aide and driver to his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, when he visited one of Hamas' top terrorists, a deadly bomb-maker called Abdhullah Barghouti.