France probes activists accused of obstructing Gaza aid over ‘complicity in genocide’

PARIS — French prosecutors are investigating whether French-Israeli activists are complicit in genocide and responsible for crimes against humanity after they were accused of trying to block aid trucks from entering Gaza.

France’s National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement to POLITICO Friday that the probes were triggered after two nongovernmental organizations lodged complaints in November.

The facts under investigation took place between January and May 2024 in Israel, Egypt and Gaza, it added.

French law allows prosecutors to charge people with a “habitual residence on French territory” if the case concerns crimes against humanity or genocide.

The prosecutors did not specify exactly whom it was investigating, but French media reported that the groups targeted were Israël is Forever, a Zionist francophone organization, and Tzav 9.

Tzav 9 was sanctioned by the European Union and the United States in 2024 after reportedly blocking aid trucks, but the U.S. Treasury Department lifted sanctions on the group the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

A spokesperson for Tzav 9 slammed the investigation against herself and the group as “a joke” in a post on X. Neither Israël is Forever nor Tzav 9 immediately responded to POLITICO’s request for comment.

“I’m being targeted because I dare campaign and protest so that the humanitarian aid doesn’t fall into the hands of a terrorist organization such as Hamas,” she wrote.

A spokesperson for the French Jewish Union for Peace, one of the organizations whose complaint sparked the investigation, said it would also work to have French-Israeli soldiers who took part in the military campaign in Gaza prosecuted.

The probe in France comes as international pressure grows on Israel to increase the flow of aid into Gaza amid fears of a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel’s months-long bombing campaign and blockade has severely restricted access to food, water and medicine for civilians in the Palestinian enclave.

The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza says more than 54,000 people have died in the conflict. | Haitham Imad/EPA

While Israel has framed its actions as legitimate self-defense following the militant group Hamas’ terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023, international organizations and rights groups have accused Israel of committing war crimes during the conflict that ensued.

Some NGOs and world leaders have accused Israel of committing genocide, though most major Western democracies — including France — have not gone that far. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed allegations of genocide as “false and outrageous.”

It’s unclear exactly how many people have been killed in Gaza. The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza says more than 54,000 people have died in the conflict, though the ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians. Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of inflating those numbers, but a major study published in January by The Lancet found the death toll had at that point crossed over to higher than 64,000, with the majority of the victims women, children and the elderly.

Rory O’Neill contributed to this report.