Although Palestinian political and military (terrorist) leaders try to sell the idea that Israel is an apartheid state that exercises oppression over its neighbors, the reality is that Palestinians residing in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have benefits or rights in Israel that a Jew would never have in their territories.
Palestinians can not only work in Israel, but they can access its healthcare system, and many live in cities or towns within Israel. What is striking is that the Palestinian civilians are not the only ones who choose to take advantage of the Israeli system. The military elite that holds Israel as an enemy to destroy also paradoxically chooses to use Israeli healthcare.
Ismail Haniyeh's double standard
Ismail Haniyeh, born in Gaza in 1963, rose to be the leader of Hamas in May 2017. Today, he exercises leadership, especially political leadership, from outside of Gaza. He lives in Qatar, among many luxuries, and from there, he is in charge of coordinating the international alliances and operations of the terrorist group Hamas.
On October 7, Hamas carried out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. On that Saturday morning, thousands of terrorists invaded southern Israel to murder and kidnap civilians. Since then, Israel and Hamas have been engaged in one of the toughest wars the Middle East has seen in years.
Haniyeh is the one who has a direct relationship with the Iranian regime of the Ayatollahs, the leading financier and ally of Hamas. The objective of both is to destroy the State of Israel, considering it infidel and an obstacle to their goal of dominating the Middle East.
Ironically, although Haniyeh has dedicated his life to planning the destruction of Israel, like almost all Palestinians, he has also taken advantage of the system he claims to despise.
In 2006, The Telegraph reported that three of Ismail Haniyeh's sisters "secretly" lived in Israel as citizens with full rights. Currently, the three live in the Bedouin city of Tel as-Sabi, located in the Negev desert.
"The Daily Telegraph located the Haniyeh sisters, Kholidia, Laila and Sabah, in a city in southern Israel," the newspaper reads.
What is quite striking, too, is that even some of the sisters' sons—that is, Ismail Haniyeh's nephews—have served in the Israel Defense Forces.
Kholidia's husband, Abu Rukayek, told the Telegraph they are happy living in Israel: "Our life is normal, and we want to keep it that way."
"The Haniyeh sisters were Palestinians who lived in Gaza. Then it was possible for an Israeli to visit Gaza daily, so Kholidia got married and moved to Tel as-Sabi," Yousef Ruqia, secretary of the municipality, told the newspaper.
The secretary also said that decades ago, Ismail Haniyeh traveled to Israel to visit them often.
"Laila and Sabah are widows but remain in Tel as-Sabi, apparently reluctant to renounce their Israeli citizenship. It is unknown when the Haniyeh sisters last had contact with their brother. Since he is Hamas prime minister, the contact with him could be illegal under Israeli law," the outlet concludes.
In 2012, a sister of Ismail Haniyeh, who lived in Gaza, requested a trip to Israel so she could treat her husband in a hospital in the Israeli city of Peta Tikvah for an emergency.
The Ynet News media reported that in August 2012, Suhila Haniyeh and her husband had traveled to Israel due to a severe cardiac episode that could not be treated in any hospital in Gaza. Although the couple had the option of being treated in a modern hospital in Egypt, they preferred to go to an Israeli hospital.
"Before leaving, the couple had to submit a travel request to the Israeli authorities to receive the necessary medical treatment. After obtaining permission, a Palestinian ambulance took the husband and his wife to the Erez border crossing, where he was transferred to an Israeli ambulance and taken to the Beilinson hospital in Peta Tikvah," the media outlet Alarabiya reported.
The couple spent at least a week in the hospital. Afterward, both returned, without issues, to Gaza.
According to a report by the Israeli Civil Administration, at least 115,000 Palestinians were treated in Israeli hospitals in 2011. Also, many of the Palestinian doctors working in Gaza hospitals were trained in Israeli hospitals.
A year after her brother-in-law's treatment, it was the granddaughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who needed medical attention: in November 2013, she was treated in an Israeli hospital. Months later, in October 2014, Ismail Haniyeh's daughter was admitted to a Tel Aviv hospital to treat a complication after a routine procedure, according to a Reuters report.
The treatment of Ismail Haniyeh's daughter occurred shortly after the 2014 war between Hamas and Israel ended. The daughter of the Hamas leader was admitted to the Tel Aviv hospital for a week and was then able to return to Gaza.
