World Central Kitchen a US-based non-profit has let-go of 62 Palestinian staff members in Gaza after Israeli officials raised security flags. The charity which helps with food-aid distribution made this decision in early-december without getting detailed intel from Israel
The move came after Israeli security pointed to one former employee Ahed Azmi Qdeih (who died in a nov-30 airstrike) as taking part in last falls attack on Israel. That incident resulted in around 1200 casualties and many hostages taken: Israeli officials say their review showed direct links between dozens of workers and militant groups
WCK sent its workers a note saying “we dont have proof about these claims“ but had to make staff changes to keep operations going (the charity continues working in the region). Some fired workers spoke up about the situation; one anonymous ex-employee called it “a joke“ and denied any wrong doing
The case looks similar to what happened with UN aid group UNRWA which about 4 months ago had to remove nine workers because of similar concerns. Israeli officials wanted WCK to remove specific people from their team — the charity did this even though Israel didnt share its intelligence data