ZAKA (Hebrew: זק"א, abbreviation for Zihuy Korbanot Ason, זיהוי קרבנות אסון‎, lit.

The full name is "ZAKA – Identification, Extraction and Rescue – True Kindness" (זק"א - איתור חילוץ והצלה - חסד של אמת‎).

According to Haaretz, ZAKA's conduct in the aftermath of the attacks was unprofessional, including mixing up remains and spreading misinformation about atrocities that never happened in order to raise money.

[3] ZAKA collects the remains of the dead, including their blood, so that they may be buried in accordance with Jewish religious law.

[4] Members of ZAKA, most of whom are Orthodox Jews, assist ambulance crews, aid in the identification of the victims of violence, road accidents and other disasters, and where necessary gather body parts and spilled blood for proper Jewish burial.

[8] The organization traces its roots to a group of religious volunteers who assisted in the recovery of human remains after the Tel Aviv Jerusalem bus 405 attack in Israel in 1989, during the First Intifada.

[4] During the attack on bus line 405 in 1990, Yehuda Meshi Zahav arrived with other yeshiva boys to provide first aid to the victims.

The wreckage, along with pictures of victims, was taken to Washington, D.C. to urge the United States Government to act against the Palestinian resistance movement.

[16] After Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, ZAKA's co-founder and main figurehead for more than 30 years, was awarded the Israel Prize in March 2021,[27][28] multiple accusations surfaced of his having committed sexual assaults against women, girls and boys over several decades, with the knowledge of others in the community.

[33] Gideon Aran, a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Hebrew University, said in his book about ZAKA that most ZAKA volunteers, while familiar with Meshi-Zahav and the colorful image of himself that he had cultivated, probably had no inkling of his misconduct; only a very few senior members were partially aware of his inclinations, without suspecting there was criminal and pathological behavior involved.

[27] Following the scandal, Aran found that aside from a few changes in personnel, the organization's principles, sentiments and activities remained the same, and the damage to its public reputation was minimal.

[37] A subsequent Haaretz report stated that in order to get media exposure, ZAKA spread accounts of atrocities that never happened and released sensitive and graphic photos in an effort to shock people into donating.

[1] Haaretz also said that while hundreds of ZAKA volunteers did important work under challenging conditions, the organization acted unprofessionally on the ground, often mixing up the remains of multiple victims in the same bag and creating little or no documentation.