In a message to workers, WCK confirmed that it had “made adjustments” after Israel demanded an investigation into its hiring practices in Gaza
Reuters
11 December, 2024, 12:10 pm
Closing modified: 11 December, 2024, 12:15 pm
A US-based entirely charity, the World Central Kitchen, fired dozens of Palestinians working for the charity within the Gaza Strip, on the least three workers told Reuters, after Israel acknowledged on the least 62 workers were linked to fighter groups.
In a message to workers, WCK confirmed that it had “made adjustments” after Israel demanded an investigation into its hiring practices in Gaza.
“This can must accrued no longer be taken as a conclusion by WCK that the opposite folks are affiliated with any panic group,” it acknowledged, adding that Israel had no longer shared its intelligence and “we affect no longer know the root for Israel’s decision to flag these other folks.”
It acknowledged it had taken the step “to provide protection to our physique of workers and our operations.” A WCK spokesperson confirmed 62 of us had been let hump.
An Israeli security official told Reuters that Israel had demanded an investigation into workers potentially linked to the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, after it acknowledged a WCK employee identified as Ahed Azmi Qdeih took part within the assault, in which some 1,200 of us were killed and greater than 250 taken hostage.
Qdeih used to be killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Nov. 30. WCK confirmed the airstrike on the time and acknowledged it had no info about an employee provocative on closing year’s assault.
The official acknowledged an Israeli security evaluate realized that 62 WCK workers had “affiliations and swear connections” with fighter groups.
“As a result, senior Israeli officials demanded that WCK discontinuance the employment of those workers,” he acknowledged.
The Israeli allegations towards WCK workers echo related accusations towards workers working for the first United Nations Palestinian relief physique UNRWA. In August, the United Nations acknowledged nine UNRWA workers participants may presumably were provocative on the Oct. 7 attacks and had been fired.
Two WCK workers, who spoke on situation of anonymity because of security issues, acknowledged that they had been told the termination used to be in preserving with an Israeli overview of the workers and got right here for “security reasons”, a term on the total historical to original links with Palestinian fighter groups.
“They told me and others that Israel rejected us for security reasons. It’s a long way a shaggy dog fable,” one employee told Reuters, asking no longer to be named fearing Israeli reprisals.
