US aid group purges dozens of pro-Hamas employees

Washington D.C.-based charity World Central Kitchen fires dozens of Gaza employees accused of terror ties.

By World Israel News Staff

A Washington D.C.-based charity has purged its employee rolls of dozens of Palestinian Arabs from the Gaza Strip. Israel had informed the World Central Kitchen that the employees in question had ties to terrorism, an internal memo to the charity’s workers said Tuesday, while emphasizing that the organization itself had no specific evidence regarding the fired workers’ affiliation with terrorist groups.

“This should not be taken as a conclusion by WCK that the individuals are affiliated with any terror organization,” the memo reads. “We do not know the basis for Israel’s decision to flag these individuals.”

The decision to fire the 62 employees was taken “to protect our team and our operations.”

Three workers at the World Central Kitchen group told Reuters Tuesday that the aid group had fired 62 of its 500 Gaza employees.

Israeli intelligence suspects that World Central Kitchen employees took part in the October 7 massacres in southwestern Israel, an Israeli security official who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters.

Israel has publicly accused Ahed Azmi Qdeih, a World Central Kitchen worker, of participating in the October 7 attacks.

The Israeli Air Force killed Qdeih in an airstrike in Gaza on November 30.

Revelations of Qdeih’s terror ties and involvement in the massacre led to a wider Israeli probe of World Central Kitchen employees, the official told Reuters, during which other suspected terrorists were identified.

The 62 Gaza employees named by Israel’s probe were found to have “affiliations and direct connections” with terror groups, including Hamas, the Israeli security official said.

“Consequently, senior Israeli officials demanded that WCK terminate the employment of those workers.”