Israel to prevent 37 relief organizations from entering Gaza

37 humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza and the occupied West Bank will have their licenses revoked by Israel due to their failure to comply with new registration regulations. The International Rescue Committee, ActionAid, and the Norwegian Refugee Council are just a few of the well-known international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) whose licenses will be revoked on January 1 and their operations will cease within 60 days.

Israel claimed that the organizations had neglected to provide “complete” personal information on their employees, among other things.

Foreign ministers from ten nations, including the UK, sharply criticized the action, calling the new regulations “restrictive” and “unacceptable”.The forced shutdown of INGO activities would “have a severe impact on access to essential services including healthcare,” according to a joint statement from the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.

They urged Israel’s government to guarantee that INGOs may function “in a sustained and predictable way” and stated that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was still “catastrophic”.

Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, which is in charge of registration applications, said the new measures would not impact the flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

It said aid has continued to be delivered through “approved and vetted channels”, including UN agencies, bilateral partners, and humanitarian organisations.

The ministry said the primary reason aid groups were having their licences revoked was “the refusal to provide complete and verifiable information regarding their employees,” which it said was critical to preventing “the infiltration of terrorist operatives into humanitarian structures”.

UN-backed experts reported earlier this month that while food supply and nutrition in Gaza had improved since Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire in October, 100,000 people still faced “catastrophic conditions” the following month.

The organizations that will be suspended “did not bring aid into Gaza throughout the current ceasefire,” according to Cogat, the Israeli military organization in charge of Gaza’s gates. Less than 15% of organizations giving humanitarian help to Gaza were found to be in violation of the new regulatory framework, according to the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

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.