Ismail Haniyeh
Ismail HaniyehFlash 90

Israel said Tuesday it allowed the mother-in-law of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh into the country for medical treatment, reports The Associated Press (AP).

Maj. Guy Inbar, an Israeli spokesman, said the 68-year-old woman was allowed to enter from Gaza on Monday to receive cancer treatment at a Jerusalem hospital. A relative in Gaza confirmed she was in Israel.

The announcement followed Haniyeh's resignation as Gaza’s prime minister Monday in the wake of the formation of a new unity government between Hamas and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement.

This is not the first time that a relative of Haniyeh’s has been taken to Israel for medical treatment.

In November, Haniyeh’s granddaughter was brought to Israel in grave condition with a serious infection of the digestive tract which affected her nervous system. She was returned to Gaza a day later after Israeli doctors concluded they could not help her and later passed away.

Israel regularly allows medical patients from Gaza to cross into Israel for treatment - between 40-70 people per day. This has gone on even as the Hamas leadership threatened Israel with genocide and terrorists from the region launched thousands of rockets towards southern Israel.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of the Shavuot holiday in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)