ZDF Suspends Gaza Partner Over Alleged Hamas Link

German public broadcaster ZDF said it has suspended all cooperation with Palestinian partner Palestine Media Production (PMP) after Israel provided documents indicating a 37-year-old PMP engineer killed in an Oct. 19 Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah was a member of Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades. The strike also killed the 8-year-old son of a co‑worker. ZDF said the evidence did not specify when or what tasks the engineer carried out for Hamas, welcomed the Israel Defense Forces’ clarification, and currently has no indications that other PMP employees are members of Hamas. ZDF, which said it had worked with PMP for decades, is conducting a thorough review and has suspended cooperation until the investigation is complete. The development has drawn criticism and underscores the broader controversy over Israeli strikes that have killed Gaza media workers; the IDF maintains it does not have a policy of targeting journalists.