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Israel is set to revoke the licenses of 37 aid organisations operating in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, citing their failure to meet new registration requirements.
Prominent international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), including ActionAid, the International Rescue Committee, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, are among those facing license suspension, effective January 1, with operations slated to cease within 60 days.
Israeli authorities stated that the groups had, among other issues, failed to provide “complete” personal details of their staff.
The decision has drawn strong criticism from foreign ministers representing 10 nations, including the UK, who deemed the new regulations “restrictive” and “unacceptable.”
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland asserted that the enforced closure of INGO operations would “have a severe impact on access to essential services including healthcare.”
They further stated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains “catastrophic” and called upon the Israeli government to ensure INGOs can operate “in a sustained and predictable way.”
Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, responsible for registration applications, maintains that the new measures will not impede the flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
The ministry added that aid delivery would continue through “approved and vetted channels,” including UN agencies, bilateral partners, and humanitarian organisations.
It stated that the primary reason for the license revocations was “the refusal to provide complete and verifiable information regarding their employees,” which it described as crucial for preventing “the infiltration of terrorist operatives into humanitarian structures.”
Earlier this month, UN-backed experts indicated that there had been improvements in nutrition and food supplies in Gaza since a ceasefire was brokered between Israel and Hamas in October, but 100,000 people still experienced “catastrophic conditions” the following month.
Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing Gaza’s crossings, stated that the organisations facing suspension “did not bring aid into Gaza throughout the current ceasefire.”
It further noted that “even in the past their combined contribution amounted to only about 1% of the total aid volume.”
The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs reported that less than 15% of organisations providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza were found to be in violation of the new regulatory framework.
That framework includes several grounds for rejection, including:
The Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a forum uniting UN agencies and over 200 local and international organisations, previously warned that the new registration system “fundamentally jeopardises” the operations of INGOs in Gaza and the West Bank.
“The system relies on vague, arbitrary, and highly politicised criteria and imposes requirements that humanitarian organisations cannot meet without violating international legal obligations or compromising core humanitarian principles,” it said.
It added: “While some INGOs have been registered under the new system, these INGOs represent only a fraction of the response in Gaza and are nowhere near the number required just to meet immediate and basic needs.”
According to the Humanitarian Country Team, INGOs currently run or support most of Gaza’s field hospitals and primary healthcare centres, emergency shelter responses, water and sanitation services, nutrition stabilisation centres for children with acute malnutrition, and critical mine action activities.
In a statement, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, said: “The message is clear: humanitarian assistance is welcome — the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorism is not.”
Other organisations to be suspended include CARE, Medico International and Medical Aid for Palestinians.
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