"Home Sweet Home" - Hamas leader's three sisters live secretly in Israel as full citizens

"Home Sweet Home" - Hamas leader's three sisters live secretly in Israel as full citizens.(Telegraph).

Israel regards Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian Hamas prime minister, as an enemy of state. But three of his sisters enjoy full Israeli citizenship, having moved 30 years ago to the desert town of Tel Sheva. Some of their offspring have even served in the Israeli army, the force responsible for decades of Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, an occupation that the Islamist movement, Hamas, was founded to fight.

The Daily Telegraph tracked down the Haniyeh sisters, Kholidia, Laila and Sabah, to a town in southern Israel. That they live in Israel is a closely guarded secret and nowhere is it guarded more secretly than Tel Sheva, a town inhabited mainly by Israeli Bedouin on the edge of the Negev desert.

Another member of the clan, Yousef Abu Ruqia, 50, who works as secretary in the municipal council, explained how the Haniyeh sisters came to Tel Sheva.

"In a small community like ours there were not enough women to go round, so some of the men would go and look for wives elsewhere,'' he said.

"The Haniyeh sisters were Palestinians living in Gaza. Back then it was possible for people to visit Gaza easily, so Kholidia was the first to be married and move to Tel Sheva, and then Laila and then Sabah.''

He said he remembered the time, 25 years ago, when their younger brother, Ismail, would come to visit his sisters. "There was another brother, Khaled, who came here to work laying tiles and each year, at the holiday after Ramadan, Ismail would come and visit his brother and sisters."Read the full story here.

Here's a confirmation of the story from Carl in Jerusalem dating to 2006 :

According to the Telegraph, who tracked down the sisters, some of their children have even served in the IDF