The 57-year-old sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Sabah el-Salem Haniyeh, has been indicted on charges of identifying with a proscribed terrorist organization and incitement to terrorism. The indictment, filed in the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court, alleges that Haniyeh sent WhatsApp messages to dozens of contacts, including her brother, praising and supporting Hamas’s horrific terrorist attack on October 7.

According to the indictment, Haniyeh sent a message on October 10 to two WhatsApp groups, urging them to pass around a prayer that called for the destruction of the enemy. The prayer, which was shared with 125 people, called on Allah to “scatter, separate, and destroy” the enemy, and to “cut off their lives” and “keep us away from their evil.”

Haniyeh is charged with two counts of identifying with a terrorist organization, which carries a three-year prison sentence, and three counts of incitement to terrorism, which carries a five-year prison sentence. The State Attorney’s Office has requested that the court order Haniyeh to be held in detention until the end of the legal proceedings against her.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)