United Nations agencies and international aid organisations (INGOs) have warned that Israel’s new registration procedures could deny life-giving care to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in 2026.
Dozens of relief groups face deregistration by December 31st if they do not meet certain criteria. This would force them to cease operations within 60 days. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said deregistration would have a “catastrophic impact on access [for] essential and basic services” in Gaza at a time when the Strip’s medical facilities have been damaged or destroyed.
INGOs deliver about $1 billion (€850 million) in annual assistance across the West Bank and Gaza. Barred INGOs would have to withdraw international staff from Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, and would no longer be permitted to provide aid to Gaza.
Israel has said the re-registration process aims to exclude hostile groups from operating in Palestinian territories. Of the 100 agencies which have applied, more than a dozen have been denied permission while the rest have been approved or are under review.
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Rejections were issued to aid agencies which refused to submit to new Israeli requirements, notably submitting Palestinian staff lists and naming donors.
Israel’s ministry of diaspora affairs and combating anti-Semitism told AFP that bans applied to groups accused of terrorism, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, delegitimisation of Israel, and refusal to condemn the Hamas attack which killed 1,200 people in Israel on October 7th, 2023.
Among the organisations deregistered are Save the Children, which cares for 120,000 children in Gaza, and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group which was commissioned in 1948 by the UN to provide aid to Palestinian refugees in Gaza.
The UN relief agency Unrwa, which has served Palestinian refugees since 1950, was banned in 2024 after several staff members were charged with taking part in the attack.
Organisations opposed to the new rules include Action Against Hunger, ActionAid, Medical Aid for Palestinians, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and Oxfam. These groups participate in the Humanitarian Country Team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Aid agency spokesmen argue Israel’s new regulations are “vague, arbitrary, and highly politicised”.
In a statement issued on December 17th, the team said: “INGOs run or support the majority of field hospitals, primary healthcare centres, emergency shelter responses, water and sanitation services, nutrition stabilisation centres for children with acute malnutrition, and critical mine action activities.”
A statement issued earlier this month by the INGOs said: “These organisations are not optional extras. If they are pushed out, the humanitarian response will not survive.”
If this were to happen international humanitarian law decrees that Israel, as occupying power, would be responsible for the welfare of 5.5 million Palestinians living under its occupation. This would include providing food, water, healthcare, education, and other essential services which have been assumed by the UN and INGOs since Israel’s foundation 77 years ago.
