Israel has announced that 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.
As such, several international humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), face being barred from working in Gaza from Thursday, January 1, 2026, for failing to comply with Israel’s new restrictions for aid groups operating in the devastated enclave.
Aid agencies have repeatedly voiced concerns over those requirements, citing the safety of their employees.
Israel said that its registration rules are to prevent Hamas from exploiting international aid, a claim the UN and aid groups have rejected.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that 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.”
Israel said that it notified international organizations in March that they needed to comply with the requirements. It said that 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, claimed that the groups facing suspension did not bring aid into Gaza throughout the current ceasefire and the “government decision will not result in any future harm to the volume of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.”
It said that 4,200 trucks would continue to enter Gaza each week through the UN, donor countries, the private sector, and more than 20 international organizations that have been registered.
Relief groups say that Israel’s decision affects more than two dozen aid organizations and that suspending their operations in Gaza “will cost the lives of Palestinians.”
Refugees International said in a statement, “Removing these humanitarian organizations now will deepen exposure, illness, and preventable deaths,” adding, “It is a pretext to further restrict aid to Gaza while silencing independent aid organizations.”
Countries Warn Of Gaza’s Dire Humanitarian Situation
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 weak 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 from the severe weather conditions, according to the Hamas-run Government Media Office in Gaza (GMO).
The Foreign Ministers of Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said in a statement, “As winter draws in, civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping.”
The 10 Foreign Ministers warning about conditions in Gaza urged the Israeli government to take “urgent and essential steps,” including ensuring international NGOs can continue operating in the strip and allowing the UN and its partners to carry out their humanitarian work.
They also called on Israel to open crossings and boost the flows of humanitarian aid into Gaza. At least 1.3 million people still require urgent shelter, while more than half of Gaza’s health facilities are only partially functioning because of shortages of essential medical supplies, the statement said.
It added that the collapse of sanitation infrastructure had left around 740,000 people vulnerable to toxic flooding.
However, Israel’s Foreign Ministry rejected the joint statement, calling it “false but unsurprising.”
The ministry said in a post on X that the statement reflects “a recurring pattern of detached criticism and one-sided demands on Israel, while deliberately ignoring the essential requirement of disarming Hamas – a prerequisite for the security of Israel and the region.”
It also criticized the statement for overlooking what it called the “significant improvement in the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire,” attributing the progress to Israel’s efforts alongside the United States.
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