An Israeli hospital said on Sunday that it has treated a daughter of Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, who is a sworn enemy of Tel Aviv.

A spokesman at Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv told AFP that the daughter had been admitted for emergency treatment last month, although he was unable to name her due to patient privacy.

A senior official in the Gaza health ministry confirmed a relative of Haniya had received treatment at the hospital, but identified her as a sister of the former Palestinian prime minister.

She had been in "critical, life-threatening condition" when she arrived at the facility two weeks ago, the official said.

Both sources said the patient had been discharged after a few days and returned to Gaza.

The Palestinian official said she is now in "stable" condition.

Israel, which launched a devastating 50-day offensive against the coastal enclave that ended on August 26, controls the movement of Palestinians from Gaza to Israel but allows the passage of some humanitarian cases.

Last year, a granddaughter of Haniya was hospitalised in Israel in a critical condition.

Medics in Gaza said at the time that Amal Haniya, aged one, was sent to Israel for treatment for a serious infection of the digestive tract which affected her nervous system.

The premier's son Abdessalam Haniya wrote that Amal was then returned to the Al-Nasser paediatric hospital in Gaza, "still in a state of clinical death".

A medic explained that due to the child's critical condition she had been transferred back to the Gaza hospital, where should would receive the same medical care as in Israel.

She reportedly died on November 25.

Every year, thousands of Gazans are given permission to cross the border into Israel for urgent medical treatment, according to the World Health Organisation.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.