On December 30, Israel announced it was banning thirty-seven humanitarian aid groups from Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem for failing to comply with new Israeli registration requirements—impacting about 15 percent of the organizations operating in Gaza, including Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam.
Though Israel’s High Court temporarily halted the ban, humanitarian leaders warn that the measures come at a time when Gaza’s civilian population remains heavily dependent on international assistance for food and health care following months of war and widespread infrastructure destruction.
In a video released in December, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, describes Israel’s suspension of access for multiple aid agencies as “outrageous,” calling it part of a broader pattern of unlawful restrictions on access to humanitarian aid. She urged states with influence to press Israel to allow unhindered aid delivery, warning that arbitrary constraints would further worsen conditions for Gaza’s population.
“Such arbitrary suspensions make an already intolerable situation even worse for the people of Gaza,” Shamdasani says in the video. “I remind the Israeli authorities of their obligation under international law to ensure the essential supplies of daily life in Gaza, including by allowing and facilitating humanitarian relief.”
Israel claims the new requirements introduced in March 2025 are to prevent “the exploitation of aid” by Hamas; the updated framework requires organizations seeking to operate in areas under Israeli control to submit extensive documentation, including information about their operations and funding, and detailed lists of foreign and Palestinian staff members with their passport numbers and personal identification details.
“Principled humanitarian organizations cannot transfer sensitive personal data of national staff or their families,” stated a group of fifty-three international NGOs in a January press release. “This is consistent with humanitarian principles, duty-of-care obligations, and global data-protection standards applied across all contexts.”
The resolution empowers an inter-ministerial Israeli committee to deny NGOs registration on several grounds, including if an organization is deemed to promote boycotts of Israel, support what officials describe as “delegitimization activities,” or challenge Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state.
While Israeli authorities say the measures are intended to strengthen oversight and prevent militant infiltration of aid structures, humanitarian groups argue that the breadth of the criteria—and particularly the demand for personal staff data—risks politicizing aid work and exposing employees to security threats.
In January, a coalition of sixteen Israel-based human rights organizations condemned the deregistration of the thirty-seven international NGOs, warning that it would further restrict life-saving aid in Gaza and the West Bank. The groups said the new registration framework violates humanitarian principles by conditioning aid on political criteria and exposing staff to risk of being targeted by the Israeli army.
“The new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality,” the Israeli organizations said in a January press release. “This weaponization of bureaucracy institutionalizes barriers to aid and forces vital organizations to suspend operations.”
The deregistration push signals a broader shift in how aid is regulated and controlled in Palestinian territories. By tying operational approval to political and security criteria, and conditioning registration on the disclosure of sensitive staff data, Israeli authorities are reshaping the framework under which international organizations can operate in Palestine.
“If registrations are allowed to lapse, the Israeli government will obstruct humanitarian assistance at scale,” the January release said.
International NGOs in Gaza collectively run approximately 60 percent of field hospitals, operate all stabilization centers for children suffering from severe malnutrition, and fund more than half of mine and explosive hazard clearance efforts. Deregistration will sharply reduce the services reaching families already struggling to survive. The targeted organizations include Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)—all of which provide considerable medical services, shelter, food, and water to Palestinians in Gaza.
MSF runs two field hospitals in Gaza, operates in six other hospitals, and supports seven health care centers; the organization supports one in five hospital beds throughout the enclave, and one in three babies is born in an MSF-supported facility. While Israel has accused MSF of exaggerating its presence in Gaza, the organization says it serves about half a million Palestinians in Gaza, having treated more than 100,000 trauma cases and nearly 800,000 outpatient consultations last year alone. MSF also distributes clean water and provides inpatient treatment for people with malnutrition throughout Gaza.
According to MSF, the aid organization told Israeli authorities in January that it was prepared to share a limited list of staff names in order to continue operating in Gaza. But after failing to secure assurances from Israel that its personnel would be protected, the organization has refused to hand over any staff information.
Since October 2023 alone, NRC says it has reached more than 1.2 million people in Gaza and West Bank, delivering water and sanitation to more than 500,000 people, shelter to nearly 300,000, and legal aid to more than 50,000.
The registration dispute unfolds amid wider operational challenges facing humanitarian organizations. Israel has restricted and banned humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, making it even more challenging for aid organizations to deliver assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. According to data from the United Nations, the overall movement of goods and people has fallen significantly during the war; Israel has allowed in less than one-fifth of the estimated daily needed humanitarian aid. All the while, about 1.5 million people—two-thirds of Gaza’s population—remain displaced in overcrowded sites.
Wassem Mushtaha, the Gaza humanitarian response lead at Oxfam, described aid delivery under the current restrictions as “like solving a moving puzzle,” citing prolonged access delays, supply shortages, inflated prices, and damaged infrastructure. Despite those obstacles, Oxfam and its partners have restored water wells serving more than 150,000 people. Mushtaha warned that continued restrictions on humanitarian supplies are slowing aid delivery and placing critical services at risk.
“For as long as systematic policies and practices preventing aid agencies from getting essential supplies into Gaza persist, we will have to keep finding a way to reach people in need,” Mushtaha said in a press release. “So much more could have been achieved if our efforts had not been undermined at every turn.”
The United Nations says additional measures targeting the Palestinian refugee agency United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) threaten to further undermine relief efforts. UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler said that ending Gaza’s worsening humanitarian crisis requires the unrestricted opening of all border crossings. He noted that large quantities of UNRWA aid remain stockpiled in Egypt and Jordan after Israel blocked its entry beginning in March 2025.
A senior aid worker with an international NGO in Gaza, speaking on the condition of anonymity for safety reasons, says many international aid staff have been unable to reach their duty stations in the enclave after Israeli authorities started rejecting their Gaza entry permits in March. As a result, the worker says, some international staff who were supposed to be working in Gaza have had their contracts suspended by NGOs, while others have been reassigned to work remotely from Jerusalem. Employment for new recruits has also been delayed or terminated because their physical presence is required.
Palestinians in Gaza who are already working for humanitarian organizations are not being allowed to evacuate or relocate to do their work remotely. Previously, local staff members, and sometimes members of their families, were permitted to leave the enclave temporarily for safety during a military conflict. Currently, those options are not being granted as Israel denies their requests.
Recruitment has slowed as organizations attempt to process new international hires through Israeli coordination procedures while assessing whether they can safely and legally enter Gaza. Israeli authorities are rejecting most permit applications for international staff to enter Gaza.
“It has become a logistical and security challenge,” the worker says.
Humanitarian agencies have previously reported that movement in and out of Gaza remains tightly controlled and unpredictable, with key crossings like northern Gaza’s Erez—the main entry point for aid workers and personnel—subject to complex coordination requirements and frequent delays. Entry and exit through Kerem Shalom, which handles much of the humanitarian cargo into the territory, has also been constrained, complicating the rotation of staff and delivery of relief supplies.
According to the U.N. Development Program, rebuilding Gaza after nearly three years of war is expected to cost an estimated $70 billion, with at least fifty-five million tons of debris—equivalent to thirteen times the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza—left behind.
Aid groups warn that the outcome of this regulatory battle will determine not only which organizations remain in Gaza, but whether independent humanitarian operations can continue at scale. With essential services already strained, the stakes extend far beyond administrative compliance: They touch the survival of a civilian population still grappling with war, displacement, and economic collapse.