World Central Kitchen (WCK), a U.S.-based charity that helps distribute food within Gaza, confirmed earlier this week that it had fired dozens of employees after Israel said they had been linked to terrorist organizations in the area.
Reuters reported:
An Israeli security official told Reuters that Israel had demanded an investigation into staff potentially linked to the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct 7, 2023, after it said a WCK employee identified as Ahed Azmi Qdeih took part in the attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.
Qdeih was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Nov. 30. WCK confirmed the airstrike at the time and said it had no knowledge about an employee involved in last year’s attack.
The official said an Israeli security review found that 62 WCK employees had “affiliations and direct connections” with militant groups.
The organization, founded by founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, was in the spotlight in April, after Israel accidentally killed several WCK employees when it struck a group of vehicles in Gaza that had been suspected of being a terrorist convoy.
An Israeli investigation suggested that Hamas might have baited Israel into striking the convoy by having a terrorist mount one of the vehicles and fire into the air.
Israel has accused other international aid organizations, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), of employing Palestinians with ties to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
