Who are Tsav-9? The Israeli extremists ransacking food trucks for starving children

100 members of the group blocked a convoy of lorries heading from Jordan to Gaza, before dumping out vital aid.

Harrowing video footage has emerged this week of Israeli extremists ransacking and dumping bags of food aid intended for Gaza.

Those behind the act are part of extremist group Tzav-9, formed in January by Israelis ‘outraged over the humanitarian convoys’. Their members include Israeli settlers in the West Bank, reservists and families of those taken hostage in Gaza.

The group takes their name from ‘Tzav-8’, the code for the emergency call up of reserves in case of conflict in Israel.

On Monday, 100 Tsav-9 members blocked a convoy of lorries heading from Jordan to the besieged Strip, before ransacking it and dumping out vital aid near Hebron in the West Bank.

No security presence could be seen in the videos, but Israeli police said authorities were called to ‘clear the area’ and arrested four people for obstructing traffic.

The incident has been slammed by the US, with national security adviser Jake Sullivan calling it ‘utterly unacceptable’.

The group is estimated to have over 400 members, according to Rachel Touitou, a French Israeli who spoke to the French-language Israeli channel Tandem TV in February.

Their first ‘operation’ was on January 18, when they camped for three days in front of the Kerem Shalom border terminal that separates Israel and Gaza, and prevented hundreds of humanitarian trucks from going through.

‘Why would we let these convoys pass directly into the hands of our enemies?’ Rachel said.

The attack on the food truck in Hebron comes days after the head of the United Nations World Food Program declared that northern Gaza has entered ‘full-blown famine’ after nearly seven months of war.

Who is in Tsav-9?

The group consists of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, reservists for the Israeli Defence Forces and family members of hostages being held in Gaza – as well as IDF soldiers currently fighting in the Palestinian enclave.

The initial idea for the group came from an appeal on Facebook, before growing and organising official action against the humanitarian convoys the group opposes.

On Tsav-9’s X account, the bio reads: ‘No aid gets through – until the last of the kidnapped return!’

Tsav-9 member Reut Ben Haim said the group is ‘sick and tired of sitting at home knowing what is going on’.

Why are they blocking humanitarian aid?

Those in Tsav-9 believe it is unfair for Israel to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza while Israelis are still being held as hostages inside.

They say the hostages are unlikely to receive any of the food, or basic medical treatment.

In January, member Reut Ben Haim told the Times of Israel: ‘It’s an absolute disgrace, it’s as if October 7 never happened.

‘I mean, it’s always insane to aid the enemy, but it’s especially crazy to do it today, one day after they killed 24 of our soldiers and as they’re preparing to continue to fire into our cities — even as they’re holding more than 130 of our hostages.’

The group also fear the humanitarian aid could go to Hamas. Ronen Bar, head of Israeli intelligence service Shin Bet, claims 60-70 percent of aid going to Gaza is taken by Hamas.

What have other countries said?

Tsav-9 has been condemned by the White House, and some of their members have been apprehended by Israeli Security Forces.

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said: ‘We are looking at the tools that we have to respond to this.

‘We are also raising our concerns at the highest level of the Israeli government and it’s something that we make no bones about – this is completely and utterly unacceptable behaviour.’

In the most recent destruction of humanitarian aid, six of the protestors were arrested, according to Israeli media.

But as the situation in Gaza worsens and those in the strip face famine, the actions of Tsav-9 are gaining more attention.

What’s been happening in the West Bank?

The West Bank is a Palestinian territory currently occupied by Israel, which has seen an explosion of violence since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

Both Palestinians and Israelis have been killed in the tumultuous territory.

Last year, a pair of British-Israeli sisters and their mother were shot dead near an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

In January, eight people were killed after the Israeli military raided the city of Tulkarm.

Later that month, 21 Israeli soldiers were killed in the deadliest attack on the IDF since the war had begun.

And footage of Adam – a young Palestinian boy who lived in the West Bank – which showed his killing by IDF forces, sparked outrage when it was released.

Why are Israelis in the West Bank called settlers?

The reason Israelis living in the West Bank are called settlers is because they are living on settlements and outposts which are deemed illegal under international law. This is because they are built partially – or in some cases, entirely – on privately owned Palestinian land.

More than 700,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, on settlements authorised by the Israeli government.

Roughly 40% of the West Bank is controlled by Israeli settlements, with checkpoints in place throughout the region for Palestinians living there.

A recent budget passed by Israel allocated billions for settlements in the West Bank. The money goes towards roads, routes to ‘bypass Palestinian towns’ and to expand current settlements, as well as create new ones.

A large sum of money each year goes to monitoring, reporting and restricting Palestinian construction and movement through the West Bank – something which human rights organisations have likened to ‘apartheid’.

Israeli ‘nongovernmental organisations’ often work to evict West Bank Palestinians from their own land by utilising loopholes in land laws.

Under the Fourth Geneva convention, all settlements and outposts are considered illegal as it ‘bans an occupying power from transferring its population to the area it occupies’.

The UN also said in 2016 that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank had ‘no legal validity’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.