Israel announced today that it has revoked the permits of more than 25 humanitarian organizations to operate in the Gaza Strip, including Doctors Without Borders and CARE.
The reason given was that they simply did not comply with the new registration rules.
Israel says the rules prevent Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating aid workers. But organizations say the rules are arbitrary and warn that the new ban will harm civilians who are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said the Jerusalem government's decision would have catastrophic consequences for its work in Gaza, as the organization serves about 20 percent of hospital beds in the territory and performs a third of deliveries.
MSF also denied the Israeli allegations regarding its staff. "MSF would never knowingly employ people involved in military activities," it said.
While Israel claims the decision will have only a limited impact on the ground, affected organizations believe its timing - less than three months after a fragile ceasefire came into effect - is actually devastating.
"Despite the ceasefire, the needs in Gaza are immense, and we and dozens of other organizations are now and will continue to be blocked in our efforts to bring in essential life-saving aid," said Shaina Low, communications advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The organization is also under fire for the decision. "The inability to send staff to Gaza means the entire workload falls on our exhausted local staff," Lowe said.
Some aid groups say they have not provided Israel with a list of Palestinian staff, as the Jewish state requires, for fear they would be targeted by Israel and European data protection law.
"It comes from a legal and security point of view. In Gaza we have seen hundreds of aid workers killed," Lou explained.
The decision not to renew the licenses of humanitarian groups means their offices in Israel and East Jerusalem will be closed, and the organizations will not be able to send international staff or aid to Gaza.
Israel has claimed throughout the Gaza war that Hamas is taking aid from humanitarians - an accusation the militant Palestinian organization denies.
Earlier this year, Israel announced that it would require aid organizations to register the names of their workers and provide details of funding and operations so they could continue working in Gaza.
The new regulations also include ideological requirements – disqualifying organizations that have called for a boycott of Israel, denied Hamas's October 7 attack on the country, or expressed support for any of the international legal cases brought against Israeli soldiers or leaders.
The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said that more than 30 groups - about 15 percent of organizations operating in Gaza - had not met the requirements and that their work would be suspended.
It also said that Doctors Without Borders, one of the largest and best-known humanitarian groups in Gaza, had not responded to Israeli allegations that some of its workers were linked to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
"The message is clear: humanitarian aid is welcome – the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorism is not," said Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli.
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