Social media sites suspend accounts of organization blocking aid to Gaza

Facebook and Instagram have removed numerous videos from the Order 9 movement’s social media accounts, and their activity was suspended on Instagram, the organization revealed Thursday.   

Order 9 has been the primary organization responsible for blocking trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip from reaching their destination. The organization is comprised of hostage family members, IDF reservists, family members of terror attack victims, and additional Israelis who support the cause.

After attempting to publish a video featuring family members of hostages demanding to stop aid from reaching Gaza, the movement discovered that their social media accounts were restricted. 

“Meta is silencing the overwhelming majority of the people who understand and agree that aid must not be sent to Hamas during wartime. The organized harm is not from Order 9 and the families of the hostages, but from the terrorist organization Hamas. The demand is that the Israeli government ensures that the trucks entering Gaza do not go directly into the hands of the enemy,” Order 9 said in a statement. 

Several posts from the movement were removed on Facebook on the grounds of “organized harm and promoting crime.” The movement’s ability to publish on their page was also blocked. Instagram suspended their account. 

In the video that prompted the social media platforms to restrict the movement’s accounts, a statement from family members of the hostages was shown. “Israel is providing aid to the terrorist organization Hamas,” said Noga Elfasi, the niece of hostage Mia Goren, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, who the IDF recently confirmed killed on October 7. Her body is still being held in Gaza. 

Why block humanitarian aid to Gaza

Yael Sabrigo, the niece of hostage Lior Rodaif, who the IDF also confirmed killed on October 7, and whose body is still held hostage in Gaza, said, “Those who receive and control the aid also control Gaza and will ultimately determine the fate of the hostages.” 

In an interview with CNN in early March, one of the members of the organization at the Kerem Shalom crossing argued, “If we knew it would get to children of Gaza, we would [allow] it. This does not arrive at their doorsteps, it arrives into the tunnels of Hamas who are fighting us and holding our hostages.”

When pressed by the interviewer who made the argument that the people of Gaza are starving and that there is a humanitarian crisis, another woman responded, “Even if there is a humanitarian crisis there – and there is not – but even if there is, it is my right and my duty to prioritize the life of Kfir Bibas over any Gazan baby.”