Aid to Gaza under threat: Dozens of NGOs to be barred under new Israeli rules

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Médecins ⁠Sans Frontières or MSF) urged Israel to allow it to operate in Gaza and the occupied West Bank in 2026 amid fears that it – and dozens of other NGOS – could be barred from operating in the Palestinian territories because of new Israeli rules set to come into force on January 1. 

The organisation has provided care to nearly half a million people in more than two years of war in Gaza, where it currently supports around 20 percent of the hospital beds and a third of births.

"If MSF is prevented from working in Gaza, it will deprive hundreds of thousands of people from accessing medical care," the group said, highlighting the life and death stakes for civilians already struggling to access health services.

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Israel’s said that 37 aid organisations – about 15 percent of the organisations operating in Gaza – have failed to comply with its new framework by a deadline that expires at midnight on Wednesday.

The new rules, announced in March, require aid organisations to “submit a list of their Palestinian employees in order to rule out any links to terrorism” and provide details about funding and operations to continue working in Gaza. 

Organisations that refused to comply received notice on Tuesday that their licences would be revoked on January 1, with an obligation to cease all activities by March 1, 2026.

Along with MSF, organisations that will have their licenses revoked include the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), World Vision International, CARE and Oxfam, according to a list provided by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism. 

The EU warned on Wednesday that Israel's threat to suspend the aid groups would block "life-saving" assistance from reaching Gaza's population.

"The NGO registration law cannot be implemented in its current form," EU humanitarian chief Hadja Lahbib wrote on social media. "IHL (international humanitarian law) leaves no room for doubt: aid must reach those in need."

The United Nations rights chief on Wednesday said Israel's proposed ban was "outrageous", calling on states to urgently insist Israel shift course.

"Such arbitrary suspensions make an already intolerable situation even worse for the people of Gaza," Volker Turk said in a statement.

Blocking ‘life-saving assistance’

Israel said the ban would have a limited impact on the ground in Gaza, but the affected organisations say the timing – less than three months into a fragile ceasefire – is devastating.

NGOs currently ensure a large proportion of essential services in Gaza, such as the provision of healthcare, water, food and waste collection.

“There are almost no public systems working,” Claire Nicolet, emergency coordinator for MSF in Gaza, told FRANCE 24. “The majority of basic needs are covered by international organisations.” 

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The NRC said that being deregulated would mean it would likely be forced to shutter its East Jerusalem office and would not be able to bring foreign aid workers into the Palestinian enclave. 

It has around 200 local staff as well as 35 international ‍staff across Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

“The needs in Gaza are enormous and yet we and dozens of other organisations are and will continue to be blocked from bringing in essential life-saving assistance,” said Shaina Low, the NRC's communications adviser.

“Not being able to send staff into Gaza means all of the workload falls on our exhausted local staff,” she added.

A ‘violation of humanitarian principles’

Israel said its new framework for aid organisations would prevent "hostile actors or supporters of terrorism" operating in the Palestinian territories, specifically Hamas which it has accused of using aid organisations as a cover for militant activities.

In January, Israel banned the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, from operating on its territory after repeatedly accusing it of being infiltrated by Hamas, using the militant group’s facilities and taking aid – accusations UNRWA denied.

Israel this week accused MSF of employing two individuals with links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

"They refuse to provide lists of their Palestinian employees because they know, just as we know, that some of them are involved in terrorism or linked to Hamas," spokesman for the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Gilad Zwick, told AFP.

MSF denied the claim. “MSF would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity,” it said.

Some aid groups said they didn’t submit the list of Palestinian staff for fear they’d be targeted by Israel, and because of data protection laws in Europe.

“It comes from a legal and safety perspective. In Gaza, we saw hundreds of aid workers get killed,” added Low.

Since October 2023, more than 500 aid workers have been killed in the Palestinian enclave.

“Agreeing for a party to the conflict to vet our staff, especially under the conditions of occupation, is a violation of humanitarian principles, specifically neutrality and independence,” added Athena Rayburn, the executive director of AIDA, an umbrella organisation representing over 100 organisations that operate in the Palestinian territories.

Rayburn said offered alternatives to submitting staff lists, such as third-party vetting, but that Israel refused to engage in any dialogue and did not confirm that the data collected from the new regulations wouldn't be used for military or intelligence purposes.

The Israeli framework also includes ideological requirements, including disqualifying organisations that have called for boycotts against Israel, denied the October 7 attack or expressed support for any of the international court cases against Israeli soldiers or leaders.

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Humanitarian crisis

The ban on major aid providers comes as Gaza’s war-torn population is living through harsh winter conditions and bracing for rains and flooding that peak in January and February.

“We are entering the third winter in a row that is really complicated for the population in Gaza. Most of the population is living inside tents, makeshift shelters and destroyed buildings,” Nicolet said, noting that some shelters were so unstable that they had been lost in strong winds.

At the same time, NGOs and the UN say that the amount of aid entering Gaza is already inadequate, with only 100 to 300 trucks allowed in per day.

The October 10 ceasefire agreement stipulated that 600 aid trucks should be allowed into the Palestinian territory every day.

But provision is “not at scale”, and humanitarian organisations are already “not able to respond to the needs” on the ground, said Nicolet. 

While MSF continues to provide health services, “we are not able to do what we could do with better materials or better quantities … we are really not able to provide for the population,” she added. 

“And maybe now we will do even less in the coming weeks and months.” 

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and Reuters)