From the Liveblog of
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Sister of Hamas chief Haniyeh indicted for incitement to terror, identifying with terrorist group
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
A sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is indicted on charges of identifying with a proscribed terrorist organization, and incitement to terrorism.
The indictment against Sabah al-Salem Haniyeh, 57, a resident of the southern town of Tel Sheva, charges her with having sent two WhatsApp messages to dozens of her contacts, including Haniyeh himself, “praising, encouraging and supporting” Hamas’s actions on October 7 when it slaughtered some 1,200 people, kidnapped 253 more and perpetrated mass atrocities in southern Israel.
On October 10, she sent a message to two WhatsApp groups, one of which had 116 members and the other with nine members, telling them to pass around a prayer which would help “destroy the enemy.”
The prayer called on God to “Scatter them and separate them and…. destroy them and destroy their buildings… and bring their end near and cut off their lives and let them be busy with their corpses and take them away… O God count them in number and kill them and do not leave any one of them. O God, do in their slaughter and keep us away from their evil.”
For this message and another message sent on October 9 she is charged with two counts of identifying with a terrorist organization, which carries with it a three-year prison sentence were she to be convicted, and three counts of incitement to terrorism which carries a five-year prison sentence.
The indictment is filed to the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court and the State Attorney’s Office requests that the court order Sabah al-Salem Haniyeh to be held in detention until the end of the legal proceedings against her.
