Israeli authorities suspect senior ZAKA officials and top figures in the ultra-Orthodox community knew of sexual abuse allegations made against the organization's co-founder Yehuda Meshi-Zahav and worked to keep it quiet, Channel 13 News reported on Tuesday.
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According to the report, Major Crimes Unit investigators are expected to question senior ZAKA officials about the allegations, which may have spanned decades.
A senior ZAKA official told Israel Hayom that the emergency medical response organization has "washed its hands" of its disgraced co-founder, who stepped down once the lurid scandal became public, saying that "given the accusations against him, it's very hard to remember the good that he's done.
"We always saw him with women and suspected that he was a deviant, but we never suspected he was a pedophile or a rapist," the official said. "In retrospect, this [the allegations] explains a lot of things we saw over the years."
"The volunteers especially feel very hurt," he continued. "They are the ones doing the work, but now they feel ashamed to be associated with ZAKA. Yehuda has hurt thousands of volunteers. People see ZAKA vehicles and think of if [the organization] as something awful," he said.
On Thursday, Haaretz daily revealed a torrent of damning allegations made against Meshi-Zahav by both men and women, some of whom were minors at the time of the alleged events.
Meshi-Zahav, a prominent figure within the ultra-Orthodox community, reportedly used his social position and status in ZAKA to sexually exploit teens and minors since the 1980s.
While the news shook Israel's secular population, his conduct was reportedly known for some time within the ultra-Orthodox community.
Meshi-Zahav vociferously denies the allegations and has told Hebrew media outlets that he intends to clear his name. He later asserted that all encounters were consensual.
"I never committed illegal acts … There were consenting relations with different women, but nothing was coerced and nothing was against the law."
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Israel Police launched a probe into the matter on Sunday, but with some cases going back decades ago, the statutes of limitation may pose legal obstacles for investigators in their probe.
Since Haaretz's publication of their report on Sunday, the number of new allegations has more than doubled.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
