The statement stressed that the Israeli government has a responsibility to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian convoys traveling through Israel and the West Bank.
The US Department of State announced on Friday that it had imposed sanctions on an Israeli group for disrupting humanitarian aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip.
“The Department of State is today designating Tzav 9, a violent extremist Israeli group that has been blocking, harassing, and damaging convoys carrying lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” the department said in a statement.
For months, members of Tzav 9 have repeatedly attempted to block the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by blocking roads on the routes from Jordan to Gaza, passing through the West Bank.
Horror on the Road to Gaza – Why Jewish Settlers Attack Palestinian Trucks
They have also damaged aid trucks and discarded life-saving humanitarian supplies onto the road.
“On May 13, 2024, Tzav 9 members 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 statement noted.
The department emphasized that providing humanitarian assistance is crucial to preventing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from worsening and mitigating the risk of famine.
It stressed that the Israeli government has a responsibility to ensure the safety and security of humanitarian convoys traveling through Israel and the West Bank en route to Gaza.
“We will not tolerate acts of sabotage and violence targeting this essential humanitarian assistance,” the statement asserted.
The department added that the US will continue to use all available tools to hold accountable those who attempt or carry out such “heinous acts,” urging Israeli authorities to do the same.
Extremist Israeli settlers rally at the "Nitzana" crossing with the Egyptian border in the south to obstruct the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/XOYLm66N43
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) January 30, 2024
Ongoing Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 37,266 Palestinians have been killed, and 85,102 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(PC, Anadolu)
In other words: a ” slap on the wrist ” for making us look bad.