Israel to Let Dozens of Aid Group Licenses Lapse, Threatening Gaza Relief Operations

Rain seeped through the canvas roof of the crowded tent in central Gaza as mothers held feverish children in line outside a mobile clinic run by Médecins Sans Frontières. Inside, volunteer doctors tried to stretch dwindling stocks of antibiotics and painkillers.

At the same time, in a ministry office in Jerusalem, officials were finalizing a decision that could determine whether clinics like this will be able to operate much longer.

On Dec. 30 and 31, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism announced that the registrations of 37 international non-governmental organizations working in Gaza and the West Bank would expire on Jan. 1, 2026, because they had not completed a new vetting process. The groups—among the best known names in global humanitarian work—have been told to wind down operations and withdraw foreign staff by March 1.

Israeli officials say the organizations failed to meet security and transparency requirements introduced last year to keep aid from being diverted to Hamas and other armed factions. The organizations and their backers warn the move could disrupt medical care, food distribution and other basic services in a territory where the United Nations says needs remain acute despite an October 2025 cease-fire.

The dispute has opened a new front in a long-running battle over who is allowed to operate in the occupied Palestinian territories, and on what terms.

New rules, expiring licenses

The confrontation traces back to March 1, 2025, when Israel’s government approved a resolution overhauling how foreign NGOs are registered to work in Gaza and what Israel officially calls Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank.

Under the decision, the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs was given authority to maintain a registry of international NGOs, working with the Foreign Ministry, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and security services. Groups already present in Gaza and the West Bank were told they had six months to reapply under the new rules, a deadline later extended to Dec. 31.

The new system requires organizations to submit detailed information on all staff, foreign and local, including identity documents and contact details. Palestinian employees are subject to security screening. NGOs must also provide comprehensive information on funding sources, governance structures and partnerships with local groups and U.N. agencies.

Beyond those administrative demands, the regulations allow authorities to deny registration to organizations accused of activities Israel defines as hostile. The criteria include denying Israel’s character as a “Jewish and democratic state,” promoting “delegitimization campaigns,” supporting boycotts of Israel and backing efforts to prosecute Israeli soldiers and officials in foreign or international courts. Alleged ties to terrorism, antisemitism or Holocaust denial are also grounds for rejection.

A coalition of aid groups, the Association of International Development Agencies, challenged the rules in Israel’s High Court, arguing they violated humanitarian principles and Israeli law. The court dismissed the petition in 2025, effectively clearing the way for the government to implement the system.

By late November, officials said they had received around 100 applications and rejected 14. In the last week of December, the ministry released a list of 37 NGOs whose licenses would expire Jan. 1 because they had not successfully completed the process.

Major aid providers caught up

Among the organizations affected or at risk are Médecins Sans Frontières (known in English as Doctors Without Borders), ActionAid, the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam affiliates, Care International, Catholic charity branches under the Caritas network, Save the Children and the American Friends Service Committee, according to Israeli media and statements from the groups.

Israeli officials say that represents about 15% of the international NGOs active in the territories and roughly 1% of the total aid volume entering Gaza since the cease-fire took hold.

“The vast majority of registered NGOs will continue their important humanitarian work,” the Diaspora Affairs Ministry said in a statement. It insisted that “implementation of the government decision will not result in harm to the volume of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.”

Some groups have accepted the new conditions. International Medical Corps and the U.S.-based Christian organization Samaritan’s Purse are among those that have submitted full staff lists and retained registration, according to people familiar with the process.

Others say the price of staying is too high.

Security concerns and political lines

Israeli officials frame the registration overhaul primarily as a security measure.

COGAT and the Diaspora Affairs Ministry say Hamas and other armed groups have historically tried to exploit humanitarian channels, placing operatives on NGO payrolls and diverting supplies or funding.

In the case of MSF, Israeli authorities have alleged that two people previously employed by the organization in Gaza were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and that the group did not fully cooperate in clarifying their identities and roles.

The accusations prompted a sharp response from MSF, which has treated war-wounded Palestinians in Gaza for decades.

“Israel’s allegations are unsubstantiated and politically timed,” the organization said in a statement, adding that it “would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity.” MSF said it has been in contact with Israeli authorities since mid-2025 to try to resolve registration issues and warned that obstruction of its operations “puts medical staff and patients at risk.”

Beyond specific security claims, the rules explicitly target NGOs’ political activity. Groups that support boycott campaigns, lobby for legal action against Israeli personnel abroad or are seen as “delegitimizing” the state can be barred from operating.

European officials and rights advocates say that moves the system beyond security vetting into the realm of political control. The European Union has described the criteria as “vague, arbitrary and highly politicized,” warning they could be used to sideline organizations that document alleged violations of international law.

Israeli officials reject that characterization, saying the state has a right to refuse cooperation with organizations it believes campaign against its legitimacy while its forces face international scrutiny.

NGOs see risk to staff and services

Many international NGOs say they cannot comply with all the new requirements without breaching their own standards or their home countries’ laws.

Groups based in the European Union argue that sending detailed personal data on Palestinian employees and their family members to a foreign security apparatus may conflict with European data protection rules. Aid agencies also say that in a highly polarized conflict setting, centralizing such data could expose Palestinian workers to future harm.

“This is not just a bureaucratic request. It’s about the safety of our staff and their families,” one senior aid official working in Gaza said on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks with Israeli authorities.

NGOs also object to the political conditions restricting their advocacy, saying it is incompatible with their mandates to monitor human rights and, when necessary, seek legal accountability.

Save the Children and Oxfam have said that, if prevented from importing relief supplies and deploying foreign staff, they will be forced to scale back to small, locally sourced operations carried out by Palestinian staff and partners. That would sharply reduce their ability to run specialized health, nutrition and protection programs.

A joint statement by several aid coalitions warned the non-renewals “risk the collapse of the humanitarian response” in Gaza and the West Bank.

High needs, fragile gains

The measures take effect as Gaza’s battered society is struggling to recover from two years of conflict and blockade.

Roughly 2.2 million Palestinians live in the narrow enclave. U.N. agencies report that most residents were displaced at some point during the 2023–2025 fighting. Hundreds of thousands are still living in tents or makeshift shelters, many of them damaged by winter storms.

Only about half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are functional, most operating at partial capacity amid shortages of fuel, medicine and qualified staff. The World Health Organization has estimated it will cost about $10 billion to restore the health system.

After months of extreme deprivation, Gaza was declared to have exited formal famine conditions in December 2025 following increased aid deliveries after the October cease-fire. But U.N. food security monitors say more than 100,000 people remain in “catastrophic” levels of hunger, and thousands of children have been treated for acute malnutrition.

The cease-fire agreement, brokered with U.S. support, envisioned 600 aid trucks entering Gaza daily. U.N. data show that in late 2025, U.N.-coordinated convoys averaged closer to 130 to 140 trucks per day, with additional commercial and bilateral shipments still falling short of overall needs.

Israeli authorities often cite higher figures, counting all truck traffic through crossings, and say Hamas interference and damaged roads inside Gaza are the main obstacles.

Humanitarian officials counter that even when enough goods enter, there is no guarantee they reach the most vulnerable without experienced organizations on the ground to manage warehouses, clinics and distribution points.

“These international NGOs provide essential last-mile services,” a U.N. aid coordinator said. “If they are forced out, it will be extremely difficult to maintain the gains that have been made in stabilizing food and health conditions.”

International backlash, uncertain outcomes

The U.N. secretary-general, António Guterres, said he was “deeply concerned” by Israel’s decision to suspend the operations of several international NGOs and urged the government to reverse the move. His spokesman said the restrictions come on top of earlier obstacles that have “already severely hampered” deliveries of food, medicine and shelter.

U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk called the NGO suspensions “the latest in a pattern of unlawful restrictions on humanitarian access” in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Foreign ministers from 10 donor countries—Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland—issued a joint statement on Dec. 30 describing conditions in Gaza as “catastrophic.” They said 1.3 million people still need shelter assistance and urged Israel to “lift unreasonable restrictions” on aid and to treat the 600 trucks per day target as “a floor not a ceiling.”

So far, however, key Western governments have not tied the NGO registrations to specific punitive measures against Israel, and Israeli officials insist the registration process remains open to groups willing to comply.

As international staff in Gaza wait to learn whether their organizations will be allowed back into the registry, Palestinian employees face a different uncertainty—whether their jobs, and the services they provide, will still exist in a few weeks’ time.

In the MSF clinic in central Gaza, a nurse shrugged when asked about the registration dispute in Jerusalem. “All I know,” she said, “is that if this place closes, the people in this line will have nowhere else to go.”