WASHINGTON: The US has imposed sanctions on an Israeli group for attacking humanitarian aid convoys bound for starving civilian people in the Gaza Strip, US official said. The US takes the step to target actors Washington believes threaten the prospects for peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis. The sanctions target Tsav 9, a group with links to Israeli military reservists and Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, over activities including harassing, blocking, and damaging aid shipments.
Palestinian people have been desperately in need of help as Israel continues its eight-month invasion and bombardment, which has killed more than 37,000 people, Gaza health ministry said. Israel has also faced allegation of blocking aid.
Extremist elements in Israel’s government, with close links to the extremist settler movement, have opposed U.S. President Joe Biden’s efforts to forge a truce deal between Hamas and Israel to end the Gaza war.
According to Reuters, the sanctions will be imposed under an executive order on occupied West Bank violence Biden inked in February, which was earlier used to implement financial restrictions on Jewish settlers involved in assaults on Palestinians. Tsav 9 group was listed as sanctioned on the official website of the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Friday.
Aaron Forsberg, director of the State Department’s office of sanctions policy and implementation said that they are using the authority to sanction an ever-broadening selection of actors, targeting entities and individuals that threaten the security, peace, and stability of the West Bank.
Western media reported that on May 13, members of Tsav 9 looted and then set fire to two aid trucks near the occupied West Bank. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that for months, individuals from Tzav 9 have also repeatedly sought to thwart the delivery of humanitarian help to the Gaza Strip including by blocking roads, violently, along their route from Jordan to Gaza, including transiting the West Bank. He said that they have damaged aid trucks and also dumped life-saving humanitarian help onto the road.
The step also freezes any assets the extremist group holds under US jurisdiction and stops US citizens from dealing with it. Human rights groups and Palestinians have accused the Israeli army and police of deliberately failing to intervene when settlers assault Palestinian people in the Occupied West Bank.
