Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF has suspended cooperation with its Gaza-based production partner after revelations that one of the company’s employees, killed in an Israeli airstrike, was a member of the Hamas terror organization.
According to documents provided by the IDF, the 37-year-old engineer, who worked for Palestine Media Production (PMP), was affiliated with Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was killed in a strike in Deir al-Balah on October 19.
ZDF announced that it has halted all collaboration with PMP “until further notice,” emphasizing that the broadcaster had no prior knowledge of the man’s terror ties and no evidence that other PMP employees are involved with Hamas.
The revelation has caused outrage in Germany. A spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group called the affair “a scandal that deeply shakes public confidence” in the taxpayer-funded broadcaster. Media unions also demanded a full investigation into how such an individual could be employed by a ZDF partner.