TEL AVIV — A recent investigation has uncovered
that the Israeli organization Zaka, which has been involved in search and
rescue operations following the events of
October 7, 2023, fabricated
allegations against the Palestinian resistance to incite the war and raise
donations due to being bankrupt, Khaberni reported.
اضافة اعلان
The Intercept reported that the assignment of
the head of operations at Zaka to collect the remains of Israeli casualties
after
October 7 led to significant media attention worldwide. The organization
faced scrutiny for fabricating ‘horrific atrocities’ against Hamas, including
claiming to witness an Israeli woman submerged in a pool of blood, with
allegations that she was slashed open and her fetus stabbed, along with dozens
of false accounts of executions, beheadings, rapes, and more.
The investigation confirmed that not a single
piece of evidence was found for the acts the organization claimed to have
occurred on
October 7.
Regarding the incident involving the Israeli
woman and her fetus, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the alleged
killing did not take place. It also highlighted discrepancies in the reported
deaths of certain individuals, affirming instead that they were killed by
gunfire from an Israeli tank.
Another report by the newspaper revealed that
following
October 7, senior Israeli military leaders sidelined specialized
soldiers responsible for retrieving bodies and preserving evidence. Instead,
they deployed untrained volunteers from Zaka. These volunteers converted the
affected sites into 'donation war rooms,' exploiting corpses to solicit
donations while spreading fictitious accounts. This undermined the pivotal role
of forensic medicine, essential for the Israel’s claim that Hamas orchestrated
a ‘deliberate mass rape campaign’.
However, the newspaper reported that while
some media outlets cast doubt on Zaka's accounts of child decapitations and
assaults on women, the investigations into these claims were lackluster.
Furthermore, the southern operations chief of Zaka admitted to occasional
misspeaking in the immediate aftermath of
October 7.
Multiple media outlets also highlighted that
Zaka had been entangled in sexual assault and financial scandals for decades,
labeling its employees as 'myth-makers' who embellish stories excessively.
An official from Zaka claimed that naked women
were tied to trees, recounting finding a young child with a knife wound to the
head and a woman's mutilated body under rubble, her organs removed. However,
these accounts were dismissed as ‘pure fiction’ by numerous Israeli media
outlets due to the lack of confirmation from any individuals or sources.
Additionally, several reports characterized
Zaka volunteers as integral to the Israeli ‘propaganda machine’, as they
effectively bolster and reinforce Israel's rationale for its war on the
Gaza Strip.
Zaka's
fundraising controversy and operational deficiencies
Moreover, Haaretz indicated that the
narratives propagated by Zaka were concocted by the organization itself, which
depends on donations and government contracts to sustain its operations. The
newspaper published an image of Zaka personnel engaging in fundraising
activities near a deceased individual, prompting observations from other rescue
organizations that Zaka volunteers were conducting fundraising calls and
recording videos with corpses in the background. Subsequently, in the second
week following October 7, the Ministry of War initiated compensation for their
efforts on the ground.
According to the newspaper, all available
evidence suggests that Zaka was in need of financial support, as the group was
facing financial distress on October 7. An investigation conducted by the
newspaper in 2022 revealed that Zaka had received millions of dollars in public
funds over the past five years by exaggerating its number of volunteers
threefold. The organization was also plagued by financial scandals and cases of
sexual assault, which had not been investigated by the Israeli Occupation
Forces (IOF).
The newspaper also estimated that Zaka has
collected a minimum of $13.7 million since October 7, explaining that Zaka
actively seeks donations through multiple social media platforms and invests in
Google ads to enhance its fundraising campaigns. After the events of October 7,
donations began pouring in for the organization. Zaka was among the recipients
of the $242 million donated by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA).
Moreover, billionaire Roman Abramovich committed $2.2 million to support Zaka's
initiatives.
Furthermore, Haaretz reported that Zaka's
documentation of remains was inadequate, as they often placed parts of
different bodies in a single bag and failed to collect all the remains from
homes and fields.
The newspaper pointed out that Zaka
acknowledges shortcomings in the testimony provided by its members, stating,
"Volunteers are not experts in forensic science and do not have the
professional tools to identify the victim's identity and age or declare how
they were killed, except for eyewitnesses.”
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