Israeli media has reported that the mother-in-law of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was allowed into the country for medical treatment. According to a Times of Israel report:
June 3, 2014 Israel said Tuesday it allowed the mother-in-law of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh into the country for medical treatment.
Maj. Guy Inbar, an Israeli spokesman, said the 68-year-old woman was allowed to enter from the Gaza Strip on Monday to receive cancer treatment at a Jerusalem hospital.
A relative in Gaza confirmed she was in Israel, with Israel Radio reporting she was being treated at the Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem, by the Mount of Olives.
The announcement followed Haniyeh’s resignation as prime minister Monday, and the formation of a new Palestinian unity government. Hamas has ruled Gaza the past seven years.
While Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group, Gaza residents — even those with ties to Hamas — are authorized to cross the border on a humanitarian basis.
Last November, Haniyeh’s granddaughter received treatment in Israel for an infection in her digestive tract. She later died in Gaza.
In January 2014, the GMBDW reported that Haniyeh had attended a graduation ceremony for Gaza paramilitary camps encouraging high school students to “follow in the footsteps of the suicide martyrs” and to prepare for a future war with Israel.
The Hamas charter says that it is “one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine” and soon after Hamas took over the Gaza strip, Muslim Brotherhood representatives traveled to Gaza from Egypt through the newly-opened border to review Hamas military formations. A Hamas journalist has acknowledged the role that the “international Muslim Brotherhood” has played in providing funds for the purchase of weapons and Hamas is known to be supported financially and politically by the global Muslim Brotherhood. A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman revealed that a coalition of London-based Muslim groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, were behind the mass demonstrations staged to protest Israeli actions in the 2008 Gaza war and the Global Muslim Brotherhood and its Turkish affiliates were also intimately involved, along with the Turkish government, in the June 2010 Gaza flotilla that was involved in a violent altercation with Israeli naval forces. Following a period of seeming ascension related to the period of Egyptian rule by the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization was forced to scramble to try and find other state sponsors after Mohamed Morsi was deposed as President. In September 2013, it appeared that Hamas had succeeded in re-establishing close ties with Iran. In January 2013, Israeli intelligence sources claimed that Turkey has replaced Iran as the chief source of Hamas financing.