Israel has announced that it will “enforce” a prohibition on the operations of 37 foreign NGOs based in Gaza because they have failed to meet “security and transparency standards,” including the disclosure of information about their Palestinian employees, by the deadline.
According to AFP, the UN has warned that the impending march 1 deadline will make the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories already devastated by war much worse. As a result, the groups in question would now be obliged to end their operations by that day.
In a statement released today, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism announced that organisations whose licenses will be terminated will have failed to satisfy the necessary security and transparency criteria.
In the days leading up to the deadline, Israel was the target of worldwide criticism; a number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) voiced concerns that the demands violated international humanitarian law or threatened their autonomy.
Israel claims that organizations it holds responsible for aiding terrorism will no longer be able to operate in Palestinian territory according to the new regulation.
“The main issue that was found was their disregard for the need to disclose accurate and comprehensive information about their staff members, which is an essential measure to avoid the penetration of terrorists into humanitarian organizations,” the ministry stated.
The new regulations, which require NGOs to provide “full disclosure of personnel, funding sources, and operational structures,” were imposed by Israel in March and NGOs were given a ten-month deadline to comply.
Yesterday, the deadline passed.
The 37 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) “were formally informed that their licenses would be revoked as of January 1, 2026, and that they must complete the cessation of their activities by March 1, 2026,” was stated today by the ministry.
“The Bureaucracy as a Weapon”
“Humanitarian aid is welcome — the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorism is not,” stated Amichai Chikli, Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism.
According to the ministry-provided list, the prohibition has affected numerous well-known humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and World Vision International.
Israel claimed that two MSF workers were affiliated with the Palestinian militant organizations Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
While stating earlier this week that it “would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity” and that the request to release a list of its staff “may be in violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law,” MSF also claimed that these individuals were involved in military operations.
Today, eighteen left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) based in Israel condemned the move to exclude their foreign counterparts, stating that “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
This “weaponization of bureaucracy” creates “institutional barriers to aid” and “forces vital organizations to suspend operations,” according to their statement.
Yesterday, UN rights chief Volker Turk slammed Israel’s move, using the word “outrageous,” and urged nations to put pressure on Israel to change its mind immediately.
“The people of Gaza are already living through an intolerable situation, and these arbitrary suspensions just make it worse,” he stated.
“This sets a dangerous precedent,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN organization for Palestinian refugees.
He stated on X that the fundamental humanitarian ideals of humanism, independence, impartiality, and neutrality that support help work worldwide would be further compromised if efforts to regulate aid organizations were not resisted.
“Nearly disastrous”
The United Kingdom and France were among ten nations whose foreign ministers demanded that Israel “guarantee access” to humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, describing the situation there as “catastrophic” on Tuesday.
In response to Hamas’s unprecedented onslaught on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, Israel launched a terrible war, and a fragile ceasefire has been in effect in Gaza since then.
With approximately 80% of buildings destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, the situation for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip remains grim.
The director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza, Amjad Al-Shawa, estimated that 1.5 million out of more than two million Gazans have lost their homes.
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