Israel's decision to suspend aid groups will have devastating impact on Gaza services, NGO says

Israel's decision to suspend the licenses of over two dozen aid groups will have a devastating impact on their services in Gaza, the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the suspended organisations, said on Wednesday.

Shaina Low, a communication advisor for the NRC said the group will close its office in East Jerusalem and will no longer be able to send international staff into Gaza to relieve the workload on Palestinian staff, many of whom have lost their homes in the war and are displaced.

Low added that some humanitarian groups who run health clinics, education centers and other programming in East Jerusalem may have to close down.

She warned that the ban could harm aid organisations' ability to meet sky-high need in Gaza. "We already are seeing needs continue to grow in Gaza despite the ceasefire. People need food, they need shelter, they need medicine, they need clothes, they need clean water. And so the idea that there would be further obstruction for humanitarian agencies means that those needs will not be met," she said.

Low said that humanitarian NGOs operate 60 percent of field hospitals in Gaza, have distributed three quarters of shelter aid in Gaza, and 50 percent of food aid distribution.

Israel says it suspended the organisations for failing to comply with new registration rules. It says the rules are aimed at preventing Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating the aid organisations.

Ideological requirements

But the organisations say the rules are arbitrary and warned that the new ban would harm Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem who are in need of humanitarian aid. Israel has claimed throughout the war that Hamas was siphoning off aid supplies, a charge the United Nations and aid groups have denied.

The new rules, announced by Israel early this year, require aid organisations to register the names of their workers and provide details about funding and operations in order to continue working in Gaza.

The new regulations included ideological requirements — including disqualifying organisations that have called for boycotts against Israel, denied the Oct. 7 attack or expressed support for any of the international court cases against Israeli soldiers or leaders.

Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said more than 30 groups — about 15 percent of the organisations operating in Gaza — had failed to comply and that their operations would be suspended.

It also said that Doctors Without Borders, one of the biggest and best-known groups in Gaza, had failed to respond to Israeli claims that some of its workers were affiliated with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.