Live Update
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Israel denies Hamas chief’s request for Israeli sisters to attend son’s wedding in Gaza
Israel rebuffed a request by Gaza-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to allow his three sisters — who are living in Israel — passageway into Gaza to attend his son’s wedding.
The IDF bureau that handles logistics in the Palestinian territories says that the request was denied because the militant group is holding a number of Israelis captive in the coastal strip.
Haniyeh’s three sisters live in a Bedouin encampment in the Jewish state.
The IDF added that yesterday it rejected an appeal to facilitate the transfer of the head of Hamas’s spokesperson office, Ihav Ghassein, though Israeli territory to Jordan for medical reasons.