Tsav 9 to Blinken: "As long as there are abductees in Gaza and aid reaches Hamas, we will continue to block it."
Never heard of Tsav 9? They are Israeli citizens who believe return of the hostages and victory at war depends partly on Hamas not being given "humanitarian" aid. Here is who they are.
Yesterday, Tsav 9 (also referred to as Order 9) activists claimed that extraordinarily large police and security forces were waiting for them at many intersections on the way to Nitsana crossing and told them: "We have been ordered to stop you at all costs."
But they are not surrendering.
First I will bring you Tsav 9 activities from yesterday and today and then I will tell you a bit about who they are and how they came into being.
From midnight, 1 May
Last night at midnight, the Allenby Crossing from Jordan into Israel was blocked by Tsav 9 activists to prevent the movement of aid trucks into Gaza and the waiting arms of Hamas terrorists. They were there even though, after becoming aware of what was going to take place, the army declared it a closed military zone.
Shlomo Sherid, a reservist who served in Gaza, spoke to the camera at half past midnight:
We are here at the Allenby crossing. We came to stop aid to Hamas. Our brothers who are kidnapped in Gaza — here are their photos — they don’t have such aid. We want to stop the aid that is being delivered to Hamas.
And, as of 10 am today, Tsav 9 activists have been blocking the aid trucks in the area of the Nir Yitzhak intersection in southern Israel on their way to the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, where Blinken is expected to arrive in the next few hours to review the transfer of aid.
The Secretary of State of the United States will arrive and find out that the citizens of the State of Israel are determined and unwilling to give gifts to Hamas. As long as there are abductees in Gaza and aid reaches Hamas, we will continue to block it.
In the meantime, four young men, who protested against the introduction of aid to Gaza, were arrested this morning in the vicinity of Maale Adumim which is on the route between the Allenby Crossing (King Hussein Crossing) and Gaza.
Morning, 30 April
Reut Ben Haim, a mother of eight whose husband is currently fighting in Gaza, responded to police preventing Tsav 9 activists from blocking the movement of “humanitarian aid” to Hamas and threatening to apprehend her. In the clip below, she said that she is standing in a public place, and that, as a citizen, it is legitimate that she is there :
They are not letting me do the simplest thing — blocking the provision of aid to the enemy. My husband is currently in Gaza, he can't even come to sign a bond to release me. This thing where trucks are driving to the enemy and all the police are on foot and all the security forces are doing is not to ensure our safety, but to ensure that the other side gets the strength to continue killing.
Just like last Saturday, two young men who were just starting their lives, were picked off by Hamas. This time, also, we see how the State of Israel continues to strengthen the enemy and weaken us.
Come on! Those who are trusted with the security of the State of Israel, this is your time to prove yourselves. Show us, ministers, in which government you are serving."
Attorney Daniel Shimsilashvili of the NGO Honenu that is representing the four young men arrested today says:
It is a scandal in which the State of Israel invests enormous resources in transferring aid to an enemy that wants to destroy us in the course of a war. The convoy of trucks was accompanied by soldiers, which is ridiculous; instead of directing them to fight the enemy, they are required to secure aid to the enemy.
What is Tsav 9?
For just over 13 weeks, since January, Tsav 9 has been attempting to block the passage of trucks carrying aid to Hamas in Gaza. At their first demonstration, at Keren Shalom Crossing, on 24 January, they succeeded in blocking all but nine of the 60 trucks waiting to enter Gaza.
Hundreds of demonstrators were there: families of hostages, reserve soldiers, bereaved families and families of soldiers, and others who, in Reut’s words “are just sick and tired of sitting at home knowing what is going on.”
On 28 January, security forces tried to prevent a similar demonstration by not allowing the activists access to the crossing. While a few trucks made it through, the activists bypassed the soldiers on foot and managed to block the rest of the trucks waiting that day. The trucks were redirected to Nizana Crossing further north but Tsav 9 activists went there and again were successful in blocking passage of trucks.
At this point, the army expanded the closed military zone to prevent entrance to civilians. This did not keep the activists away and on 29 January 13 were arrested. Over 100 trucks entered Gaza that day.
After attempts to block trucks at Nitzana and Kerem Shalom, they picked up their activities at Ashdod Harbour, blocking the place where the trucks pick up their cargo.
This cat-and-mouse “game” between the demonstrators and the army continues to this day.
At about 1:30 minutes in the clip of an interview with Reut Ben Haim, she defines what Tsav 9 means. It borrows the term from the army whereby tsav 9 is the term for the immediate call-up of reserve soldiers to their units. Reut explains:
It is a call-up order to map and eliminate all that divides us — right and left and each sector [of the population]. To clean up all that divides us and be left only with what is important: that we want to win this war and that we want our soldiers to be safe and to stop burying the best of our children and visiting the wounded, and that we want all the hostages to come back to Israel. We are only concerned with what we share.
Ben Haim set up this movement, together with people on the left and right. She has lived for the past 16 years in Netivot in the Gaza Envelop and knows what it is like to raise children under constant threat from Gaza: missiles, incendiary kites, etc.
If you want to help support the Tsav 9 movement, click here.
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