By EFE
May 1, 2024, 16:35 PM EDT
The Israeli authorities released and placed under house arrest Sabah al Salem Haniyeh, sister of the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, who was charged in April with incitement to terrorism and identification with a terrorist organization, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this Wednesday. .
Sabah, 57, was arrested on April 1 in the Bedouin town of Tel Sheva, in southern Israel, accused of having sent two WhatsApp messages to dozens of her contacts, including Haniyeh himself, “praising, encouraging and supporting” the Hamas attacks on October 7, which left some 1,200 dead and 253 kidnapped.
According to the indictment, on October 10, Sabah al Salem Haniyeh sent a message to two WhatsApp groups, one of which had 116 members and the other with nine members, asking them to circulate a prayer that would help “destroy the enemy”.
In one of the messages sent by the sister of the Hamas leader identified by the investigation, you can read: “Destroy them and destroy their buildings… and bring their end closer and cut off their lives and let them deal with their corpses and take them away.”
For this message and another sent on October 9, she is charged with two counts of identifying with a terrorist organization, which carries a three-year prison sentence if found guilty, and three counts of inciting terrorism, which carries a sentence of five years.
The accusation was presented to the Beersheba Court of First Instance and the State Prosecutor’s Office requested that the court order Sabah al Salem Haniyeh to be detained until the judicial process against her is completed.
Ismail Haniyeh has been in exile in Qatar for years and heads the political arm of the Islamist group, in addition to leading its representation abroad.
Hamas is currently studying a truce proposal from Israel after almost seven months of fighting, which would entail the release of around thirty hostages in exchange for the release of an undetermined number of Palestinian prisoners.