Exclusive: US imposes sanctions on Israeli group that attacked aid organizations in Gaza

By Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Washington will impose sanctions on an Israeli group on Friday for attacking aid convoys carrying starving civilians in the Gaza Strip, U.S. officials told Reuters, the latest move against actors Washington sees as threatening prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The sanctions target Tsav 9, a group with links to Israeli army reservists and Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Its activities include blocking, harassing and damaging aid deliveries.

The Palestinians are in desperate need of help as Israel continues its eight-month invasion and bombing campaign, which has killed at least 37,000 people, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Israel has also been accused of blocking aid, which it denies.

Right-wing elements in the Israeli government with ties to the settler movement are opposing US President Joe Biden’s efforts to negotiate a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war, which began with Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7 and in which Israeli officials say around 1,200 people were killed.

The financial sanctions are being imposed under an executive order on violence in the West Bank signed by Biden in February, which has previously been used to impose financial restrictions on Jewish settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians and a Palestinian militant group.

“We are using our authority to impose sanctions on an ever-increasing range of actors, targeting individuals and entities that threaten the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, or location,” Aaron Forsberg, director of the Office of Sanctions Policy and Enforcement at the U.S. State Department, told Reuters.

On May 13, members of Tsav 9 looted and set fire to two aid trucks near the West Bank city of Hebron.

Tsav 9 – Hebrew for “Order 9”, a reference to the draft orders for Israeli military reservists – said after the May 13 incident that it had taken measures to stop supplies to Hamas and accused the Israeli government of giving “gifts” to the Islamist group.

“For months, individuals from Tzav 9 have repeatedly attempted to prevent the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by blocking roads on their route from Jordan to Gaza, which also crosses the West Bank, sometimes violently,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement seen by Reuters.

“They have also damaged aid trucks and dumped life-saving humanitarian aid onto the streets.”

This move will freeze all of the group’s assets under U.S. jurisdiction and bar Americans from any trading with the group.

The US-based human rights group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) this week called for US sanctions against Tsav 9, saying the group raises funds from Israeli companies and Israeli and US non-profit organizations.

In a statement, DAWN said that such vigilante groups would go unpunished by the Israeli authorities.

Palestinians and human rights groups have long accused the Israeli military and police of deliberately failing to intervene in settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.

According to lawyers, Israel has arrested four of those involved in the May 13 attack, including a minor.

“We will continue to use all the means at our disposal to hold accountable those who attempt to commit or perpetrate such heinous acts,” Forsberg said. “We have raised this with all levels of the Israeli government and expect that the Israeli authorities will do the same.”

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; Editing by Josie Kao)