France has issued arrest warrants for two French-Israeli women accused of blocking humanitarian aid convoys headed to the besieged Gaza Strip during Israel’s genocide, Le Monde reported on Monday.
Investigators suspect the two women of complicity and incitement to genocide in Gaza, the newspaper said.
French authorities issued the warrants over the summer as part of a wider inquiry into French citizens involved in disrupting aid deliveries.
The women, born in France and now living in Israel, are Nili Kupfer-Naouri, who leads the organisation Israel Is Forever, and Rachel Touitou, an activist linked to Tsav 9.
The warrants follow complaints filed by French-Palestinian citizens and human rights groups, which urged French authorities to act against dual nationals that played a direct role in obstructing lifesaving assistance during Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe.
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In June 2024, the US Department of State designated Tzav 9 a “violent extremist Israeli group that has been blocking, harassing, and damaging convoys carrying lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
Over months, activists connected to the group targeted aid routes from Jordan towards Gaza, including in the occupied West Bank, using road blockades that at times turned violent.
They also vandalised trucks and dumped vital supplies onto roads as Israel’s aid blockade pushed Gaza deeper into famine.
Serious human rights abuses
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.
Touitou attacked the French justice system in comments to Le Monde, saying: “I notice that the French justice system handles a complaint filed by a radical pro-Palestinian organization faster than complaints filed by Lawyers Without Borders and the European Jewish Organization against manifestations of support for terrorism by radical left-wing members of parliament,” she told Le Monde.
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One complainant said the warrants showed that “finally the French justice system is taking action.” The complainant also said Kupfer-Naouri has spent years making “statements encouraging crimes against humanity and genocide.”
The French Jewish Organisation for Peace (UJFP), which also filed a complaint, said the warrants reflected the gravity of the women’s actions. “Collaboration in genocide is not an abstract concept. It involves very concrete and specific actions,” the organisation stated.
In May 2024, Meta suspended Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to Tzav 9 after the group used the platforms to organise raids on aid convoys.
The European Union has also sanctioned the group, saying its actions worsened Gaza’s suffering. “Those actions contributed further to the already dire situation of the civilian population in Gaza,” it said, adding that “Tzav 9 is responsible for serious human rights abuses”.
