Diplomat conducted ‘first Gaza paragliding flight,’ shouted, ‘Free Palestine!’ three months before terror attack

A former European Union envoy to Gaza is being slammed for allegedly empowering Hamas to use paragliders, the very devices employed by the Palestinian terrorists to invade Israel and kill more than 1,400.

Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, a German diplomat, crowed on video in July that he was conducting “the first Gaza paragliding flight in history” as he soared over Gaza’s coast while shouting, “Free Palestine!”

The giddy then-EU envoy told Palestinians in the footage that once they’re free, “You can do exactly the same thing.”

But rather than seeing Palestinians enjoy recreational paragliding as he advocated, such gliders were instead used by Hamas to kill Israelis on Oct. 7.

Israel has since declared war on Hamas and launched devastating airstrikes on Gaza, prompting von Burgsdorff to condemn the Jewish state, claiming it “doesn’t matter what Hamas did,” Israel Hayom reported.

“It cannot be that Israel has carte blanche because terrible acts, cruel and shocking acts happened to 1,000 or even 1,200 Israelis,” von Burgsdorff said during a recent radio interview. “This is not the excuse you can use to flatten Gaza.”

The former diplomat found himself in the middle of the debate raging around the Israel-Hamas war after the video resurfaced of him taking to the skies over Gaza in July, claiming Palestinians could enjoy things such as paragliding and kayaking if Israel ended its blockade.

Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the spectacle at the time as a form of “provocative” propaganda that only serves to empower Hamas.

“The European diplomat forgot a long time ago that he represents the European Union and its member states,” the ministry said in a statement.

“[He] continues to represent the Palestinian narrative and to be a propaganda tool in the hands of the terrorist organizations that control Gaza.”

A rep for the EU delegation to the Palestinians told Reuters that the paraglider used in the stunt belonged to von Burgsdorff.

Von Burgsdorff left his post in Gaza in August but has continued to voice his opposition to Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory, most recently involving its airstrikes.

With more than 4,700 Palestinians killed since Oct. 7, the diplomat said in the radio interview that nothing justified “the] use of such deadly force without distinction and proportionality as far as the Palestinian population in Gaza is concerned.

“It cannot be that Israel is threatening to bomb corridors and shipments carrying humanitarian equipment. It cannot be. It is another war crime if it happens,” he added.

Von Burgsdorff did not condemn Hamas’ attack in Israel that targeted hundreds of innocent civilians, many of them women and children, and also involved the kidnapping more than 200 people, including at least a dozen Americans.

Von Burgsdorff could not be immediately reached for comment.