Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh speaks during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, March 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The sister of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh, one of the Palestinian terror group’s most visible leaders, was arrested in southern Israel on Monday.
The 57-year-old woman lives with her family in Tel Sheva, a Bedouin city near Beersheba in Israel. She was detained in a joint raid by Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency.
While the woman was not initially named — only referred to as “a relative of a senior member of Hamas” — Israel media reported that police later identified the suspect as Sabah Avad al-Salam Haniyeh, one of Haniyeh’s sisters.
According to police, officials found documents, electronic devices, and other evidence linking Haniyeh’s sister to “serious security offenses.” She was arrested at the scene on suspicion of having contact with Hamas operatives and supporting acts of terrorism.
Police also said they found hundreds of thousands of shekels in cash in the house.
The Hamas chief’s sister is set to appear in the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court on Monday to be arraigned on charges of “inciting and supporting acts of terrorism in Israel.”
“The Southern District will not hesitate by any means in the war against terrorism and will use all the means and tools at its disposal, everywhere, in order to create deterrence at the same time as thwarting terrorist attacks, with the aim of ensuring the safety and security of the citizens of Israel,” Maj. Gen. Amir Cohen, the commander of the Israel Police’s Southern District, said of the arrest.
The arrest came just under six months after Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel from Gaza, murdering 1,200 people and kidnapping 253 others as hostages. More than half the hostages are still being held in the Palestinian enclave. The Oct. 7 onslaught was the largest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
Haniyeh said at a conference of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) in Doha, Qatar, in January that “we should hold on to the victory that took place on Oct. 7 and build upon it, adding, “Time is on our side.”
The Hamas chief reportedly has an estimated net worth of $4 billion and lives a life of luxury abroad in exile in Qatar.
The fact that Haniyeh’s sister lived in Israel caused ire among Israelis in the early days of the war, as her brother was arguably the most wanted man in the country.
Haniyeh’s three total sisters all have Israeli citizenship, live in Tel Sheva, and were married to Arab Israelis. Two are now widowed.
The arrest came a day after an Arab from a neighboring Bedouin town, Rahat, carried out a terror attack at Beersheba’s main bus station. A terrorist stabbed an Israeli soldier, lightly wounding him, before another soldier killed the terrorist.
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