The Biden administration announced sanctions Friday against an extremist Israeli group that for months has been attacking and impeding convoys of humanitarian aid to Gaza, in a bid to halt activity that U.S. officials worry is inflaming tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
The measures against Tsav 9, a group with ties to Israeli military reservists and West Bank settlers, aims to punish the organization for its blockades of roads between Jordan and Gaza and its attacks on trucks carrying badly needed aid to civilians in Gaza.
Tsav 9 is the lead group in a constellation of extremist organizations that have been trying to keep aid from getting to Gaza, infuriating U.S. and Arab leaders and worsening the already grim circ*mstances for civilians in the Palestinian territory, where many people are facing starvation.
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“For months, individuals from Tsav 9 have repeatedly sought to thwart the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by blockading roads, sometimes violently, along their route from Jordan to Gaza, including in the West Bank,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement announcing the sanctions. “We will not tolerate acts of sabotage and violence targeting this essential humanitarian assistance. We will continue to use all tools at our disposal to promote accountability for those who attempt or undertake such heinous acts.”
The action will freeze the group’s assets under U.S. jurisdiction, under the authority of an executive order on West Bank violence that President Biden issued in February. Individual members of the group were not hit with sanctions, but U.S. officials have said that they could face them in the future. U.S. citizens will also be barred from dealing with the group.
Far-right Israeli groups have been setting up checkpoints along highways, harassing drivers and checking shipments. In some cases, they have looted and burned the trucks carrying the aid, including on May 13, when Tsav 9 members set fire to two trucks near the West Bank city of Hebron that were shipping help to Gaza, Miller said in the statement.
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The Israeli extremists often use WhatsApp groups to help track the shipments and coordinate attacks on them, turning out groups to rip aid off the back of flatbed trucks and destroy it. Some Palestinians who have been targeted say the Israeli military does little to prevent the attacks, and sometimes forces them to leave behind the offloaded shipments, a charge the Israel Defense Forces denies.
Tsav 9 — Hebrew for “Order 9,” a reference to what reservists receive when they are called up for duty — has hundreds of members, including demobilized reservists and West Bank settlers. It has been blocking shipments since January.
“The choice of the Biden administration to impose sanctions on a movement in which family members of hostages who chose to stop aid to the enemy in time of war is a difficult and shocking decision,” the group said in a statement. It said it has been trying to block shipments of aid that go to Hamas, the militant group that attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The Biden administration says the aid shipments go to civilians.
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“Israel deserves the duty and the right to win,” the group said.
Democracy for the Arab World Now, a U.S.-based human rights group, earlier this week called on the Biden administration to impose sanctions on Tsav 9, saying it was being financed by U.S. and Israeli companies and nonprofit groups.
The extremist groups’ efforts to block aid shipments to Gaza has contributed to an overall challenging picture for assistance flowing into the enclave, as civilians have faced shortages of food and other basic supplies for months. The Biden administration has been pressuring Israel to open more aid routes into Gaza, and the U.S. military constructed a floating pier off the coast of Gaza to make it possible to deliver aid by sea.
That pier has been beset by challenges, though, and has twice had to suspend operations because of bad weather and high waves, which make it difficult to operate. The latest setback came amid bad weather forecasts on Friday, when U.S. Central Command announced plans to detach and temporarily move it to “prevent structural damage.”
The pier will be towed back from the Israeli port of Ashdod once the weather has improved, Central Command said. The move came about one week after the U.S. military resumed operations over the pier after heavy waves ripped the pier apart May 25, causing an estimated $22 million in damage and curtailing aid to Gaza for days.
Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.
