For breaking its new guidelines for aid organizations working in the Gaza Strip, Israel has announced that it will suspend more than 20 humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders.
According to Israeli authorities, organizations that were facing bans starting on Thursday didn’t comply with the new requirements for sharing information about their staff, funding, and operations.
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The Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE International, the International Rescue Committee, and divisions of major charities like Oxfam and Caritas are other notable organizations that have been affected.
Israel claimed that Doctors Without Borders, which is known by its French name MSF, cooperated with Hamas and that it misrepresented the roles of some staff members.
“Humanitarian assistance is a welcome gift,” the message is clear. Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli remarked that the humanitarian frameworks are not being used to fuel terrorism.
The health sector has been targeted and largely destroyed in Gaza, where MSF, one of the largest medical organizations, has said Israel’s decision will have a devastating impact on its work there, which accounts for about 20% of hospital beds and accounts for one-third of births. The organization also refuted Israel’s claims about its workforce.
According to the statement, “MSF would never knowingly employ people engaged in military activity.”
Israel’s rules, according to international organizations, are arbitrary. Israel claimed that 37 organizations that operate in Gaza were preventing renewal of their permits.
“Awful circumstances”
Aid organizations provide a range of social services, including education, healthcare, mental health and disability services, and food distribution.
The decision by Israel is a part of its ongoing efforts, according to Amjad Shawa of the Palestine NGOs Network.
In order to carry out their plan to expel the Palestinians and deport Gaza, the humanitarian operations in Gaza are limited. According to Shawa, one of the things Israel is doing continues to do is this.
At least 10 nations expressed “serious concerns” about the “renewed deterioration of the humanitarian situation” in Gaza, calling it “catastrophic.”
In a joint statement, the countries of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland are dealing with “awkward conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures falling as winter draws in.”
“1.3 million people still require urgent shelter,” according to the report. More than half of medical facilities are in need of expensive, necessary medical equipment and supplies, and they are only partially functional. 740, 000 people are vulnerable to toxic flooding as a result of the total collapse of sanitation infrastructure.
The nations called for the establishment of land crossings to increase the flow of humanitarian aid, and demanded that Israel make sure that international NGOs could operate in Gaza in a “sustained and predictable” manner.
The joint statement, according to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was “false but unsurprising” and “part of a recurring pattern of detached criticism and one-sided demands on Israel while purposefully disregarding Hamas’ most fundamental requirement of disarming it.”
“Gaza needs are enormous.”
More than 100 aid organizations contacted Israel four months ago to demand that it stop preventing life-saving aid from entering Gaza as it refused to allow aid trucks to enter the stricken Gaza Strip.
Since Israel started its genocidal war against Gaza in October 2023, there have been more than 71 000 Palestinian casualties. Due to a lack of medical supplies, hundreds of people have died from severe malnourishment, and thousands more have preventedable illnesses.
Humanitarian organizations dispute Israel’s claims and claim that more aid is urgently needed in the region of more than two million Palestinians. However, Israel claims it is upholding the aid commitments made in the most recent ceasefire.
In March, Israel changed its registration procedure, which required submitting a list of employees, including Palestinians in Gaza.
Some aid organizations alleged that Israel would target Palestinian employees by refusing to release a list of their employees.
“From a safety and legal standpoint. We saw the deaths of hundreds of aid workers in Gaza, according to Shaina Low, Norwegian Refugee Council’s communications officer.
desperately needed lifelines
Organizations won’t be able to send international staff or aid to Gaza because of the decision to not renew the licenses for aid organizations’ offices in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.
Despite the ceasefire, “we and dozens of other organizations are and will continue to be prevented from bringing in essential lifesaving assistance,” Low said. “Despite the ceasefire, the needs in Gaza are enormous.” Because we can’t send staff there, our exhausted local staff is responsible for handling all the work.
The ministry says the aid organizations will need to leave by March 1 as a result of Israel’s decision, which will require them to do on Thursday.
Israel has tried to repress international humanitarian organizations before in this context. UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, was accused throughout the conflict of being a target of Hamas and Hamas for abusing UNRWA’s facilities and obtaining its assistance. That has not been proven by the UN.
Israel must support UNRWA-led relief efforts in Gaza, including those that were recommended in an advisory opinion released in October, according to an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice.
Israel’s claims against UNRWA, including that it was a part of the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, were unsupported, according to the court.
The court added that Israel, as the occupying force, must provide the “basic needs” of the Palestinian population in Gaza with supplies that are “essential for survival,” such as food, water, shelter, fuel, and medicine.
Following Israel’s accusations, a number of nations halted UNRWA’s funding, putting in a risk to one of Gaza’s most desperately needed lifelines.
