Abela  Abela is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:   The Abela family , which is a branch of the royal family of Spain, is originally from Catalonia from where some of its members moved to Valence and then to Sicilia and to Malta. Ávila (called Abela by the Romans) is the capital of the Ávila province (where Saint Teresa, Doctor of the Church, is born), part of Castile and León, the largest autonomous community of Spain. The Abela family is a noble family of Malta. George Abela was unanimously elected President of the Republic of Malta by the Maltese Parliament in 2009, for the first time since the country gained its independence from the United Kingdom. His term ended in 2014. His son, Robert Abela, is the current Prime minister of Malta (since 2020). Wistin Abela was Malta’s finance minister, minister for development, minister of energy, ports and telecommunications and deputy prime minister. Carmelo Abela, Malta’s current minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion, was Malta’s minister for Home Affairs and National Security and the Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives of Malta. In the 18th century, Giacomo (Jacomo) Abela and his son Tommaso Abela left Malta to settle in Saint John of Acre to do trading with Malta. Elias Abela (the son of Tommaso Abela) and his sons Francis (who went to Egypt), Tommaso (Thomas) – who had a son, Habib Abela (who went to India, China and Sudan where he died) – and Giuseppe Tommaso (Joseph or Youssef) Abela are born in Saint John of Acre. The history of the Abela family in Lebanon starts in the early 19th century when Giuseppe Tommaso (Joseph or Youssef) Abela moved to Tyr (where he married) and then to Saida (where he settled). Because of the Maltese roots of the Abela family, Giuseppe Tommaso (Joseph or Youssef) Abela obtained for him and his descends, i.e. all the members of the Abela family in Lebanon, the British citizenship. The Abela family is a reputable family of Lebanon. During the 20th century, Dr. Habib Abela was a very famous medical doctor in ophthalmology and in otolaryngology who cured several heads of State and Government of Middle East countries.