Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's sister is charged by Israel with 'praising, encouraging and supporting' terror group's barbaric October 7 attacks - as video shows dramatic moment armed police make arrest

Israel's State Attorney indicted the sister of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on charges of incitement and showing solidarity with a terror group on Sunday, after she allegedly praised Hamas' October 7 attack that sparked the six-month old war in Gaza.

Sabah al-Salem Haniyeh, 57, lives in the southern Israeli town of Tel Sheva. Her brother is based in Qatar, as are other officials from Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip.

Bodycam footage taken by armed police shows two unmarked vans filled with officers pulling up to her home in the lead-up to the arrest. 

They were seen talking to someone in a hallway, before they arrest her. She can be seen calmly submitting to the arrest as cops put handcuffs on her.  

Haniyeh has been held in custody since her arrest on April 1, Israel's justice ministry said. There was no immediate comment from her lawyer.

Sabah al-Salem Haniyeh, 57, understood to be pictured, lives in the southern Israeli town of Tel Sheva

Her brother Ismail Haniyeh (pictured) is based in Qatar, as are other officials from Hamas

According to the indictment, in the days after Hamas' October 7 killing spree in southern Israel, Haniyeh sent messages to dozens of contacts, including to her brother, praising the cross-border assault and calling for further 'slaughter'.

One of her messages mentioned in the indictment includes the line: 'Oh God, count them and kill them and don't leave any of them, Oh God.'

Hamas killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in the October 7 attack, sparking the war, in which Gaza's health authority says more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed 22 people, including 18 children, health officials said on Sunday,

Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million has sought refuge from fighting elsewhere. It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the US. 

The first Israeli strike in Rafah killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies. The woman was pregnant and the doctors managed to save the baby, the hospital said.

Bodycam footage taken by armed police shows two unmarked vans filled with officers pulling up to her home in the lead-up to the arrest

She can be seen calmly submitting to the arrest as cops put handcuffs on her

Haniyeh has been held in custody since her arrest on April 1, Israel's justice ministry said

The second strike killed 17 children and two women, all from an extended family, according to hospital records. Mohammed al-Beheiri said his daughter, Rasha, and her six children, the youngest 18 months old, were among those killed. Her husband's second wife and their three children were still under the rubble, al-Beheiri said.

Around 80% of the territory's population have fled to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave.

The conflict, now in its seventh month, has sparked regional unrest pitting Israel and the US against Iran and allied militant groups across the Middle East. Israel and Iran traded fire directly this month, raising fears of all-out war between the longtime foes.

Tensions have also spiked in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who the military says attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the southern West Bank town of Hebron early Sunday. 

The Palestinian Health Ministry said the two killed were 18 and 19, from the same family. No Israeli forces were wounded, the army said.