Israeli police have arrested a sister of Ismail Haniyeh, the former prime minister of Palestine.
Reports suggest that Haniyeh’s sister Sabah Avad al-Salam Haniyeh has been arrested on suspicion of contact with operatives from the terror group and supporting acts of terror.
In a statement on Monday, Israel police said that they have arrested a 57-year-old woman who is “a relative of a senior member of Hamas” in a joint raid with the Shin Bet that was dubbed “Early Dawn.”
However, the Israeli police did not identify the suspect, saying only she was a resident of the southern town of Tel Sheva, where the raid was carried out.
Police said that officers found documents, media, telephones and other evidence during the raid on the suspect’s home, linking her to “serious security offenses”. She will appear at the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court later Monday for a hearing on her detention.
Haniyeh lives in exile in Doha, Qatar. His three sisters live in Tel Sheva and were married to Arab Israelis. Two are now widowed and have fallen foul of Israeli authorities in the past by making illegal trips into Gaza in 2013 via Egypt. They were both given eight-month suspended sentences for the visits in 2015. Later that year, Israel denied Haniyeh’s request that his sisters be permitted to attend his son’s wedding in Gaza.
