The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned an Israeli raid Saturday in Gaza that led to the rescue of four Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants, stating that Israeli forces had committed a “horrific massacre.”
Palestinian sources began raising concerns about the number of people killed in the raid — without specifying whether they were militants or civilians.
Hamas held the Israeli hostages among civilians, near a crowded marketplace in the central Gaza city of Nuseirat. It has rejected recent proposals for ceasefires and hostage releases.
CAIR is an organization that has been engaged by many Democrats, from the Biden administration to members of Congress like Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), who won an award from the organization and refused to return it.
As news sources have noted:
In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian militant organization. The United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014 (a decision that the Obama administration opposed).
On Saturday, CAIR issued a statement
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned the “horrific massacre” of more than 200 Palestinians at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. Israeli forces bombed the Nuseirat refugee camp on Saturday, killing 210 Palestinians and wounding more than 400, while conducting a raid in the area that resulted in four Israeli hostages being freed.
CAIR executive director Nihad Awad stated:
We strongly condemn the Israeli government’s horrific massacre at Nuseirat refugee camp, where Israeli forces, some hidden in a humanitarian aid truck, reportedly slaughtered at least 200 Palestinian civilians while freeing four Israeli hostages who could have and should have been safely released months ago as part of a ceasefire agreement that Benjamin Netanyahu keeps torpedoing so that he can continue the genocide and stay in office.
