Israel police on Monday said they arrested one of Ismail Haniyeh’s sisters as part of a terror probe in southern Israel. Sabah Abdel Salam Haniyeh, who is an Israeli citizen, was taken into custody in the town of Tel Sheva.
The probe also involves Israeli security agency Shin Bet.
A spokesperson from the Israeli police confirmed that it was Haniyeh’s sister, said she is “suspected of having contact with Hamas operatives and identifying with the organisation, while inciting and supporting acts of terrorism in Israel”.
“(We found) documents, media, telephones, other findings and evidence linking her to the commission of serious security offences against the State of Israel,” the spokesperson said.
Sabah is set to appear at the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court later Monday for a hearing on her detention.
Ismail Haniyeh, who lives in Doha, is the head of Hamas’s political bureau and has three sisters – Kholidia, Laila and Sabah.
The UK-based Daily Telegraph in 2006 tracked down Haniyeh’s three sisters to Tel Sheva, a town inhabited mainly by Israeli Bedouin on the edge of the Negev desert.
The Haniyeh sisters came to Tel Sheva through marriage, Yousef Abu Ruqia, who would now be 68 told the Daily Telegraph in 2006.
“The Haniyeh sisters were Palestinians living in Gaza. Back then it was possible for people to visit Gaza easily, so Kholidia was the first to be married and move to Tel Sheva, and then Laila and then Sabah,” Ruqia was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.
Yousef Abu Ruqia was a member of the Israeli Bedouin clan and knew Kholidia through her husband, Salameh Abu Rukayek.
Laila and Sabah are both widows and live in Tel Sheva. A separate report by the Times of Israel said, without specifying, that two of the sisters have fallen foul of Israeli officials in the past by making illegal trips into Gaza in 2013 via Egypt.
They were handed eight-month suspended sentences for the visits in 2015.
The report by the Daily Telegraph also posited that some of their offspring have even served in the Israeli army, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) responsible for maintaining law and order in the West Bank and is currently fighting Hamas in Gaza.
For years, Israel has maintained a policy of admitting Gazan patients for medical treatment, primarily in cases of severe or life-threatening conditions, based on security and health considerations.
This policy has extended to family members of Hamas leaders, including Haniyeh himself, whose niece, mother-in-law, daughter, and granddaughter have received medical care in Israeli hospitals.
In 2014, Haniyeh’s daughter was hospitalized at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital, though the specifics of her condition were not disclosed. Additionally, Haniyeh’s mother-in-law received treatment at Augusta Victoria Hospital near Jerusalem in 2014.
Haniyeh’s 1-year-old granddaughter was treated in Israel for a digestive tract infection in 2013 but was returned to Gaza after her condition was deemed incurable. She later passed away due to her condition.
In February, one of Haniyeh’s nieces gave birth at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, according to reports.
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