Sabah Haniyeh, the sister of Ismail Haniyeh, who served as the head of Hamas’s political wing until he was assassinated in Tehran in July, has been charged in Israel with incitement and identification with a terrorist organization.
In the transcript of her interrogation by the Israeli Police, published by Channel 12 for the first time on Monday, Sabah denies any connection to the terrorist organization.
“I’ve been in Israel for more than 40 years, I’ve been here since 1980,” she said, adding that she hadn’t been in touch with her brother in a long time. “The last time was before the war, almost a year ago.”
“We don’t talk about politics,” she insisted. “Once a year he calls, asks how I am, and that’s it. He doesn’t talk to us about anything and we don’t talk to him about anything. We don’t interfere in his things and he doesn’t interfere in our lives.”
The investigator challenged her claim that she wasn’t involved in the terror war against Israel: “The evidence shows that you use social media and spread pro-Hamas and pro-Gaza content.”
Sabah denied that she posted anything to social media and demanded that the interrogator show her the material.
He replied that police had the material, that she was a Hamas supporter and that “because of this, you have been arrested.”
Sabah, who was born in Gaza, gained Israeli citizenship through her marriage to an Arab Israeli. She told police interrogators that she is the only member of her family in Israel.
The rest died in Gaza, except for her brother, she said. The questioning took place prior to Ismail Haniyeh’s death in July.
