While the head of the political bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, is still examining the proposal for a hostage deal formulated at the Paris summit, Israel's News 13 reported that members of his family are receiving life-saving medical treatment at Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheba.
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Several of Haniyeh's sisters are Israeli citizens through marriage to Bedouins and live in Tel Sheva in the Negev. In recent days, one of Haniyeh's nieces gave birth to a baby in Soroka hospital. The baby was born prematurely and has since been hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit. The medical staff at the hospital have been working to save his life.
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Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas, has several sisters with Israeli citizenship
(Photo: Dalati Nohra/Lebanese Official Government via AP)
For the members of the medical team, this is not an easy situation at all due to the closeness of the family to Haniyeh, and the understanding that the leader of the terrorist organization responsible for the massacre and holding the hostages is a family member of that baby, but they understand that it is their duty to take care of him since he is ultimately an Israeli citizen. Therefore, despite the difficulties, the staff are treating the case professionally.
Haniyeh's relatives who do not live in Israel or hold Israeli citizenship have also received urgent medical treatment in Israeli hospitals in the past. In October 2014, shortly after the end of Operation Protective Edge, one of Haniyeh's daughters, then in her 20s, received emergency medical treatment at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. She was transferred to Israel through the Erez crossing, and after treatment was released back to the Gaza Strip.
In November 2013, Amal, Haniyeh's young granddaughter, was hospitalized in critical condition in Israel. She was evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Schneider Children's Hospital in Petah Tikva through the Erez Crossing due to a serious illness in her digestive tract. Her passage was approved in Israel due to humanitarian needs, but when the doctors realized that her condition was critical, she was returned to Gaza. She died shortly after.
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Ismail Haniyeh visits the bedside of his sick granddaughter in gaza, before she is transferred to an Israeli hospital for treatment
Abd Salam Haniyeh, Amal's father and Haniyeh's son, did not hide the medical treatment in Israel from the public in Gaza at the time, after the doctors in the Gaza Strip had despaired of saving her. Haniyeh's son wrote on his Facebook page that Amal was moving to Israeli terriroty and added: "I ask God to give her health." Before her transfer to Israel, Ismail Haniyeh visited her, and a photo of him standing at her bedside was published in the media.
In 2012, Haniyeh's sister , Suhila Abdel Salam, entered Israel together with her sick husband, who received urgent medical treatment at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. In March of that year, he suffered a serious heart attack, which could not be treated in the hospitals in Gaza. The couple submitted a request to cross into Israel in order to receive urgent medical treatment and the husband was taken in a Palestinian ambulance to the Erez crossing, where he was transferred to an Israeli Magen David Adom vehicle.
He was taken to the hospital together with his wife, who accompanied him throughout the process. The couple stayed in the hospital for about a week, during which Haniyeh's brother-in-law was hospitalized and treated to stabilize his condition. At the end of the hospitalization, the couple returned to the Gaza Strip.