High Court Orders State to Admit Hamas Family Members for Medical Treatment

A decision by the High Court to require the state to provide medical care for five direct relatives of Hamas terrorists inside Israel is “irresponsible,” “harmful,” and even “twisted,” said MK Betzalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) in response to the decision Sunday night. “The court prefers the welfare of Israel’s enemies over our ability to conduct a campaign against Hamas.”

Israel had been holding up admittance of the five Gaza Arab females, also spouses or daughters of Hamas terrorists who are known to the IDF. Leftist groups filed a petition demanding that the five be allowed into Israel for medical treatment, and the court accepted the petition, ordering the state to admit them. In their decision, the three High Court judges said that it was “unreasonable to respond to this request, as the individuals involved do not pose a security threat to Israel. It is clear that the treatment the patients need is unavailable in Gaza or in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, and the state has been unable to supply alternative treatment in these areas.”

The treatment is not available in Jordan or Egypt either, the court said – which leaves Israel as the only alternative. The court ordered that the five Hamas family members be admitted to Arab hospitals in Yerushalayim “immediately.”

While it was understandable that Israel would want to use treatment of terrorists’ family members as a “negotiating chip,” the court could not let that happen. “Our decision recognizes that Israel, as a democratic and Jewish state, has a responsibility above all for the sanctity of life, and the obligation, as much as can be accommodated, to provide assistance for strangers who knock on its door, even if they are residents of an enemy land.”

Those values are “twisted,” Smotrich said in a social media post. “They have mercy on the evil ones, and thus are cruel to the innocent. In their decision the judges did not cite any statute that would allow them to interfere with a decision made by the security establishment based on security grounds. They based the decision on their own twisted reasoning. If Israel wishes to survive, it must make order in the High Court.”