The daughter of a senior Hamas leader allowed by Israel to leave Gaza for medical treatment in Jordan is recovering in an Amman hospital, a Jordanian medical official said yesterday.

Elham Fathi Hamad, 21, was evacuated to Amman by helicopter on Saturday evening "after King Abdullah II ordered that she be sent to hospital in Jordan for humanitarian reasons," Jordan's Information Minister Nabil Sharif said.

The daughter of Fathi Hamad, who serves as Interior Minister in Gaza's Hamas-run government, was "immediately admitted into intensive care at the Hussein Medical Centre" in Amman, added the minister, who is also government spokesman.

Hussein Shaalan, the doctor treating Ms Hamad, was cited by Jordan's Petra news agency yesterday saying that her health "has improved significantly and she should be able to leave the hospital in 48 hours".

The woman was hospitalised at a Jordanian army-run field hospital in Gaza that was commissioned in January 2009 following Israel's devastating invasion of strip the previous month. Medical sources estimate that around 250,000 Palestinians have since been treated there.

An Israeli military spokesman yesterday confirmed that the woman had been allowed to leave the Gaza Strip for urgent medical care.

Israel says it regularly allows Palestinians to leave for emergency medical care and grants permits for patients who require advanced medical treatment not available in the impoverished territory.

Hamas, an armed group pledged to Israel's destruction, is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU.