German broadcaster says Gazan producer killed in Israeli airstrike was Hamas operative

Israel provided documents proving that a Gazan media production worker killed in an airstrike earlier this month was a member of Hamas’s military wing, the German broadcaster cooperating with the slain operative’s company said on Monday.

Germany’s ZDF public broadcaster said in a statement that it had asked Israel for clarification on the strike on October 19 in Deir al-Balah at a Palestine Media Production facility, which killed an engineer, 37, and the son of another employee.

“ZDF welcomes the fact that the Israeli army has complied with the request to clarify the identity of the slain employee of the production company PMP in Gaza. The 37-year-old, who was responsible for handling the transmission technology as an engineer, was apparently a member of the terrorist organization Hamas,” ZDF said.

“As evidence, a corresponding document was presented. Based on the documents, ZDF assumes that the engineer was a member of the Qassam Brigades. The documents do not provide any information about when and how the engineer worked for Hamas or what tasks he undertook. In response, ZDF has suspended cooperation until further notice,” the statement read.

The broadcaster added that the slain engineer was responsible for satellite transmission technology at PMP and was not a ZDF employee. It said it was taking the allegations “very seriously,” including conducting a “thorough review of the case of the killed employee, as well as of the company as a whole.”

“According to current information, however, ZDF has no indications that other PMP employees might be members of Hamas. The IDF has also not provided ZDF with any such information,” it said.

Israel has been accused of targeting Gazan journalists and media employees throughout the war, but the military says it has no such policy, and that many of the people identified as journalists who have been killed during the war were actually terror operatives.

The Israel Defense Forces carried out a wave of airstrikes on October 19, after Palestinian terror operatives launched an attack on Israeli forces in the Rafah area, in what Israel labeled a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire-hostage release deal reached earlier in the month.

Hamas said the incident occurred in an area under Israeli control, maintaining that the group had had no contact with its operatives for months.