The sister of senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk is currently undergoing cancer treatment in an Israeli hospital, Israeli media reported Monday, after weeks of the terrorist group launching rockets into Israel over the summer.
Revelations of her treatment followed separate reports that several close relatives of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' leader in Gaza, had received medical care in Israeli hospitals, including Haniyeh's daughter, granddaughter and mother-in-law.
Palestinian Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his office in Gaza City, Sept. 18, 2014. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Israel’s Arutz Sheva, quoting the Hebrew website Walla, reported that Abu Marzouk’s sister, Halmiya Shahata, 60, was granted permission to travel from Gaza to Israel for medical treatment. Israeli officials who coordinated her transportation did not reveal which hospital was treating her for reported advanced-stage cancer.
Walla reported that Marzouk's sister is in critical condition.
Israel regularly allows Palestinians to seek treatments in Israel that are not available in Gaza hospitals.
Hamas leader Haniyeh last month praised the Palestinian who rammed his car into a group of bystanders in Jerusalem, killing a 3-month-old girl and a 22-year-old woman. Israeli police said it was a terrorist attack.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman suggested that after his statement, Haniyeh's daughter would no longer benefit from medical treatment in Israel again. She had been treated in Tel Aviv a short time earlier. Arutz Sheva noted that Haniyeh’s mother-in-law was treated in Israel in June.
Last November, Haniyeh’s 1-year-old granddaughter was treated in Israel for a digestive tract infection, but after doctors were unable to cure her, she returned to Gaza and later died.
At the time, senior Hamas official Ahmed Yousef tried to explain the reason the Haniyeh family had sent her to Israel.
“If you are on the verge of death, and your enemy is the only one to treat you, of course you will resort to him,” he said, according to the Times of Israel. “Children of Hamas leaders are human beings.”
Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv – one of many Israeli hospitals where Palestinians are treated — offered a glimpse at how many Palestinians receive care in Israel.
"Over 1,000 patients from Gaza and the Palestinian Authority territories - both adults and children - are hospitalized for treatment at our hospital every year," Ichilov Hospital said in a statement last month.
