Israel to suspend operations of several aid groups in Gaza as countries warn of renewed ‘catastrophic’ humanitarian crisis.
Several international humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), face being barred from working in Gaza from Thursday for failing to comply with Israel’s new restrictions for aid groups operating in the devastated enclave.
Israel said Tuesday it will suspend the operations of international aid groups that did not renew their registration, which includes requiring organizations working in Gaza to provide personal details of their staff members.
Aid agencies have repeatedly voiced concerns over those requirements, citing the safety of their employees.
Israel’s move comes as 10 countries warned that Gaza’s humanitarian situation is facing “renewed deterioration” and that conditions in the enclave “remain catastrophic.”
Gaza, which lies in ruins, is enduring a harsh winter, with heavy rain and plunging temperatures worsening already dire living conditions.
Fierce rain and strong winds have destroyed the flimsy, waterlogged tents many Palestinians are forced to survive in, and at least 20 people have been killed by homes and buildings collapsing as they sought shelter from the severe weather conditions, according to the Hamas-run Government Media Office in Gaza (GMO).
“As winter draws in, civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping,” the foreign ministers of Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said in a statement Tuesday.
Relief groups say Israel’s decision affects more than two dozen aid organizations and that suspending their operations in Gaza “will cost the lives of Palestinians.”
“Removing these humanitarian organizations now will deepen exposure, illness, and preventable deaths,” Refugees International said in a statement. “It is a pretext to further restrict aid to Gaza while silencing independent aid organizations.”
Israel said its registration rules are to prevent Hamas from exploiting international aid, a claim the UN and aid groups have rejected. A US government review earlier this year found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas, claims both Israel and the US State Department have made.
“The registration requirement is aimed at preventing the involvement of terrorist elements and at safeguarding the integrity of humanitarian activity, as demonstrated in past cases,” the Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.
Concerns over Israel’s registration rules
UN agencies and aid groups had repeatedly voiced concerns over Israel’s registration rules.
Israel said it notified international organizations in March that they needed to comply with the requirements. It said those who did not renew their registration were told their authorization would end on January 1 and they would have to withdraw two months later.
The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency tasked with facilitating aid distribution in Gaza, said medical charity MSF “chose not to cooperate with the registration process and refused to provide Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs with a list of its employees, as required by a government decision.”
Aid agencies have balked at Israel’s new requirements.
“The system relies on vague, arbitrary, and highly politicized criteria and imposes requirements that humanitarian organizations cannot meet without violating international legal obligations or compromising core humanitarian principles,” the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a forum that brings together UN agencies and more than 200 local and international organisations, said in December.
