The sanctions were filed against Tsav 9, a right-wing organization who is described by the U.S. State Department as “violent extremist”.
Tsav 9 says it has one single agenda: to block all humanitarian aid, even when previously vetted by Israeli Defense Forces as safe, from ever making its way far enough into Gaza to reach Palestinian civilians.
In announcing the sanctions, the State Department said the group has been operating soon after humanitarian aid organizations prepared the first truck convoys carrying food, water, and limited medical supplies into the region.
Its actions were mostly disorganized initially, but as of the first of this year, the U.S. says intelligence said Tsav 9 members began laying in barriers to keep aid from entering the important Kerem Shalom crossing. The roadway has entry points into Gaza from Israel at the northern part of the Strip, and from Egypt at the south. Once the trucks were stopped, the group would seize them before they could make it back out and steal the supplies.
The blocking and ransacking phase of the group’s activities soon escalated. The group would set trucks on fire and began beating the vehicles’ drivers as a standard practice.
“The provision of humanitarian assistance is vital to preventing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from worsening and to mitigating the risk of famine,” the State Department said in its preface to a formal statement announcing the sanctions.
“For months, individuals from Tzav 9 have repeatedly sought to thwart the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by blockading roads, sometimes violently,” said State Department Matthew Miller in his own statement about the group. “They also have damaged aid trucks and dumped life-saving humanitarian aid on to the road.”
Miller cited detailed information about a particularly savage attack by Tsav 9 personnel which allegedly took place in early May. He said the group ““looted and then set fire to two trucks near Hebron, in the West Bank, carrying humanitarian aid destined for men, women and children in Gaza”.
“The provision of humanitarian assistance is vital to preventing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from worsening and to mitigating the risk of famine,” the State Department statements continued. “We will not tolerate acts of sabotage and violence targeting this essential humanitarian assistance.”
The sanctions are being applied consistent with a wide-ranging executive order issued by puppet Joe Biden in February. That order called for actively penalizing any steps taken which “threaten the peace, security or stability of the West Bank”. Sanctioning Tsav 9 under this agreement mostly for actions in Gaza could be considered using the loophole that Tsav 9 operates in both the West Bank and Gaza.
The most significant part of the sanctions from Tsav 9’s perspective is that they block U.S. citizens and companies from providing financial support for the group.
The organization issued its own short statements about the sanctions. It called them “shocking”, especially considering that Tsav 9 claims to be operating on behalf of families of Israelis held captive by Hamas in Gaza. It said blocking the aid in fact benefits the war, because “much” of the aid which might have been aimed to help Palestinian civilians is in fact being seized by Hamas anyway.
The group went on to declare the sanctions “go against any American and liberal values”.
Tsav 9 is one of several right-wing Israeli groups operating in and around Gaza and in the West Bank, both territories occupied by Israel. Though internationally these organizations are widely condemned for their actions, they are strongly supported by the Israeli public, a majority of which say in recent polls that the aid should be cut back or shut down completely.
Blocking aid is a tactic which is also strongly defended by representatives of right-wing leaders who are part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.
In the case of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, that defense comes from nearly all the way to the top of the Israeli government, and in more than just verbal support.
Immediately following the U.S. sanctions announcements, Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, Director of Research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN, fired back at the U.S. for allowing Israel effectively to sponsor these groups which interfere with critical aid shipments, and letting them get away with it.
“Recent revelations that Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ordered police to stand down and allow Tzav 9 to block humanitarian aid convoys show how this despicable strategy of starvation is coordinated from young settler activists all the way up to the highest levels of the Israeli government,” Schaeffer Omer-Man said.
“The US should not continue to ignore Israeli government involvement in these crimes and should apply sanctions to Ben-Gvir next,” he continued.
Since this is mostly a symbolic gesture by the Biden administration to appear to be “getting tough” on Israel by sanctioning an extremist group it is allowing to operate in its midst, there appears to be zero chance the White House or State Department will do anything what the DAWN Director of Research has suggested.
Despite that, the U.S. did add an unusual criticism of Israel as it announced Tsav 9’s penalties. It said that Israel had “responsibility to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian convoys transiting Israel and the West Bank en route to Gaza”.