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Israel Killed Gaza Aid Worker Who Participated in Oct. 7 Massacre; Media Framed It as Cruel Murder
Aerial view shows a World Central Kitchen (WCK) barge loaded with food arriving off Gaza, in this handout image released March 15, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
The IDF announced on Saturday that it had conducted a targeted strike on a vehicle inside Gaza, eliminating Hazmi Kadih (also known as Ahed Azmi Qudeih), a Palestinian who infiltrated Kibbutz Nir Oz and took part in the October 7 terror attacks last year.
Kadih also happens to have been an employee of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid agency.
True to form, WCK joined the bloated, overfunded ecosystem of Palestinian-focused aid organizations professing ignorance about their staff’s double lives, instead issuing a statement expressing that it was “heartbroken” over the incident and claiming to have “no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7th Hamas attack.”
This response is particularly rich coming from an organization that, earlier this year, demanded an “independent inquiry” into the IDF’s actions after several WCK workers were killed in an Israeli strike in April.
Back then, WCK declared that the IDF could not “credibly” investigate itself and insisted that “systemic change” was necessary to prevent “more military failures, more apologies, and more grieving families.”
Perhaps WCK will now call for an independent inquiry into how someone who took part in the mass murder of innocent civilians –and made his support for it crystal clear on social media — managed to infiltrate its ranks.
Or will this damning revelation be quietly brushed aside, as accountability rarely seems to flow in the other direction?
I found the Facebook account of Ahed Azmi Qadi, the @WCKitchen employee who was also a terrorist who participated in the October 7th massacre.
Let’s see what he’s posted
https://t.co/yuMVW8auLB pic.twitter.com/32XDgGIT5y
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) November 30, 2024
We somehow suspect it will be the latter, and it wouldn’t be all that surprising, given that the media are already laying the groundwork to help WCK weather this scandal unscathed.
Let’s examine the headlines reporting the IDF’s strike on the terrorist-linked vehicle.
Nearly every mainstream news outlet — including BBC, NPR, AFP, Reuters, and Sky News — framed the incident as Israel simply “killing aid workers,” while emphasizing that WCK has now suspended its Gaza operations as a result of the strike.
This narrative seems carefully constructed to villainize Israel, and deflect scrutiny from WCK’s hiring practices — or the uncomfortable evidence that one of its employees was involved in a massacre of innocent civilians.
To its credit, Sky News at least acknowledged the Hamas connection to the October 7 attacks in its subheading — a minimal nod to the context that others failed to provide.
Below are the headlines from Reuters, the BBC, NPR, and AFP — all of which hid the truth:
Reuters
BBC
NPR
AFP
In contrast, a handful of outlets, including The New York Times, ABC News, POLITICO, The Los Angeles Times, and, surprisingly, The Guardian, deserve commendation for including the IDF’s statement that Hazmi Kadih was a terrorist.
Their reporting proves that it is possible to fit critical facts into a headline, but that in some cases the media chooses not to.
The Guardian
POLITICO
New York Times
Los Angeles Times
As we’ve seen time and again, there’s a troubling “dualism” within these organizations operating in Gaza. Publicly, they speak in the language of compassion and neutrality. Behind the scenes, however, they are too often staffed with antisemites, terror sympathizers, or the dangerously naive.
This latest revelation about WCK employing a terrorist isn’t an outlier — it’s yet another glaring example of the systemic issues plaguing the overfunded and under-scrutinized aid sector in Gaza.
Back in April, when Israel swiftly acknowledged, apologized for, investigated, and even dismissed senior officers involved in a tragic drone strike that killed WCK aid workers, the media wasted no time branding Israel as guilty of everything from “trigger-happy behavior” to “going rogue.”
The incident wasn’t treated as an isolated, tragic mistake — the kind that happens in warfare, as we’ve seen countless times with many of Israel’s closest allies fighting in the Middle East, including the United States.
And yet, whenever an aid worker in Gaza is unmasked as a Hamas terrorist, the media fall conspicuously silent. If the connection to terrorism is acknowledged at all, it’s presented as a one-off anomaly rather than evidence of a systemic “terror problem” within these organizations. The same scrutiny and outrage never seem to apply.
It’s the double standard we’ve come to expect but must not accept. How many more so-called “humanitarian workers” must be exposed as murderous terrorists before the media acknowledge that not every aid group is beyond reproach? This pattern of silence and selective outrage cannot continue. It’s time for the media to hold these organizations accountable — or at least admit they have no interest in doing so.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Israel Killed Gaza Aid Worker Who Participated in Oct. 7 Massacre; Media Framed It as Cruel Murder first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove spotlights a menorah designed in the early years of the State of Israel
This laurel branch Hanukkah menorah, designed by artist Maurice Ascalon (1913-2003), won first prize at the 1950 Tel Aviv Design Competition. Between 2,000 and 4,000 of these were made by the Pal-Bell factory in Israel, and they were sold not only in Israel but in select department stores around the world, including Macy’s in New York and Harrods in London.
The shape of the oil containers resembles ancient Roman lamps, while the large pitcher is a reference to the single jug of oil that lasted for eight days that is at the heart of the Hanukkah story.
These hanukkiyot were manufactured out of cast bronze with a green patina that was created using reactive chemicals, a process developed by Ascalon, resulting in an antique verdigris look.
Ascalon, who was born in Hungary and originally named Moshe Klein, immigrated to Palestine in 1934 after training in Brussels and Milan. He started the Pal-Bell Company in the late 1930s for the production of ritual and secular decorative items. “Pal” is short for Palestine and “Bell” is short for bellezza, Italian for beauty and an allusion to his time in Milan where the artist learned and perfected his sculpting skills. During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, Ascalon designed munitions for the Israeli army and, at the request of the Israeli government, retrofitted his factory to produce arms for the war effort.
Ascalon closed Pal-Bell and moved to the United States in 1956, where he taught sculpture at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and opened Ascalon Studios, which produces large-scale sculptures for public spaces and houses of worship.
The studio, which is now run by Ascalon’s son David and his grandson Eric, was retooled during the COVID pandemic to manufacture safety boxes that allowed health-care workers to assist a patient on a ventilator while minimizing exposure.
Treasure Trove wishes you a happy Hanukkah , which starts on Dec. 25. This year, as Peter, Paul and Mary sang, “Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice, justice and freedom demand. Don’t let the light go out!”
The post Treasure Trove spotlights a menorah designed in the early years of the State of Israel appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
The post Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister first appeared on Algemeiner.com.