Israel threatens to bar 37 aid groups from Gaza and West Bank over staff data dispute
Israel has threatened to bar 37 international aid organizations from operating in Gaza and the occupied West Bank as early as tomorrow, saying they failed to submit personal details of staff under new registration rules. The move could force medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières to halt operations in Gaza, where it says deregistration would sever life-saving care for hundreds of thousands of people amid a deepening humanitarian crisis.
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The requirement, introduced in March, compels foreign non-governmental organizations to provide full staff rosters and personal data. Israeli authorities say the measure is critical to preventing terrorist infiltration. Several groups have pushed back, warning the policy risks the safety and privacy of local employees and comes after a series of attacks on aid workers in Gaza.
MSF, known as Doctors Without Borders, said it expects to be barred from operating in Gaza once it misses today’s deadline to comply. The organization says it has provided care to nearly half a million people during the two-year war in Gaza and that deregistration would cut off access to essential services for civilians already struggling to find treatment.
The Diaspora Affairs Ministry has claimed individuals affiliated with MSF have links to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. MSF called the accusations unsubstantiated and said it would never knowingly employ anyone engaged in military activity. “If MSF is prevented from working in Gaza, it will deprive hundreds of thousands of people from accessing medical care,” the group said.
Dozens of other international aid groups face deregistration within 60 days if they do not meet the new criteria. While some organizations have been re-registered under the system, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Oxfam said they are preparing for potential suspension.
The Norwegian Refugee Council warned it would likely be forced to shut its East Jerusalem office and would be unable to deploy foreign aid workers to Gaza if deregistered. The NRC has about 200 local staff and 35 international staff across Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. “At a time when needs in Gaza far exceed the available aid and services, Israel has and will continue to block life-saving aid from entering,” NRC spokesperson Shaina Low said.
Oxfam had already raised concern in May that the requirement to share staff details could expose workers to harm, citing attacks on humanitarian personnel in Gaza. The group said its Palestinian staff and partners would continue supporting communities if deregistered, but warned that forcing agencies to rely only on locally obtained supplies — because they would be barred from bringing in goods from outside — is part of a wider dismantling of the humanitarian aid system.
In a joint statement published yesterday, the British Foreign Office and partners including France and Canada urged Israel to allow NGOs to operate in a sustained and predictable way and expressed concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, said aid deliveries would continue, noting that 4,200 trucks a week are entering via the United Nations, donor states, the private sector and more than 20 international organizations that have been re-registered.
The standoff underscores the growing fragility of Gaza’s humanitarian response. With medical facilities damaged, supply lines constrained and needs surging, aid groups say a broad deregistration sweep would curtail emergency care, slow reconstruction and deepen hardship for civilians. Israeli officials argue the rules are necessary for security and point to continued aid flows through approved channels. For now, hundreds of thousands of people — and the workers who serve them — are caught between those two realities as the deadline arrives.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
