Israel is banning dozens of major aid organisations, including some of the world's best-known charities, from working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, saying they failed to meet new registration requirements.
The agencies said the bans will have a "catastrophic" impact on services delivered to Palestinians, particularly in the Gaza Strip, where most of the population relies on aid.
Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism introduced new requirements for international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) in March 2025, with a deadline of January 1, 2026, for them to comply.
The requirements included political and ideological elements, such as recognising Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, and bans on any so-called "de-legitimisation" of Israel.
The Israeli government also demanded the details of all INGO staff and their family members, something INGOs said would be a breach of humanitarian principles and their duty of care, given that Israel has killed hundreds of humanitarian workers in Gaza over the past two years.
"The system relies on vague, arbitrary, and highly politicised criteria and imposes requirements that humanitarian organisations cannot meet without violating international legal obligations or compromising core humanitarian principles," the United Nations Humanitarian Country Team, which coordinates aid to Palestinians, said in a statement on December 17.
Among the organisations rejected by the ministry are Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, Oxfam, Caritas, Action Aid, the International Rescue Committee and World Vision.
Israel's government said the 37 organisations were being banned for failing to submit details of local employees.
"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 Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military department responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said in a statement.
Plan 'simply unprecedented'
The Israeli government said nine other organisations were rejected for other reasons.
Israel has denied the bans will affect conditions in Gaza, alleging the organisations were only responsible for 1 per cent of the total aid entering Gaza at present.
"The overall scope of humanitarian aid (approximately 99 per cent) is not affected by this measure," COGAT said.
But the organisations say that ignores the services they provide, which include field hospitals, health clinics, water treatment programs, cash payments and soup kitchens.
Also, some said the reason they were not bringing aid into Gaza at present was because Israel was preventing them.
"In fact, all of our many, many requests to bring our humanitarian goods into Gaza since March this year have been denied, including very recently, and those items include food in Jordan, sanitary pads for women, very basic and essential items," Ruth James, Oxfam's humanitarian coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, told the ABC.
"I think it's clear, Palestinians are not allowed to leave Gaza. So if we can't get anything into them and they can't get out, obviously the situation for them is going to become even more catastrophic than it has been, which it is honestly very difficult to imagine.
"On a broader level, this is simply unprecedented — Israel is kicking out almost the entire humanitarian community outside of the UN."
Locals brace for 'hunger, siege and destruction'
Gazans told the ABC they were distressed to hear the aid groups would be forced to stop their services, saying they relied heavily on charities for many essentials.
"We don't have a government to introduce services in Gaza so we are in dire need of these international institutions, so we ask all international community to help us to allow them to come to Gaza, to work in Gaza, to help Palestinians, to help our children, to help old people, to help us all," Sanaa Siyam, who is living in the Zeitoun displaced persons camp in north Gaza, told the ABC.
Thirty-two-year-old Raed, who is also living in the displaced persons camp, told the ABC the move would be devastating for families throughout the strip.
"Most citizens in Gaza rely entirely on these organisations," he said.
"There is no work in Gaza, and I am a head of a family, so I depend completely on soup kitchens and the things provided by international institutions."
He added that the blocking of Doctors Without Borders would be particularly problematic.
"If it weren't for Doctors Without Borders, many people would have lost their legs, arms, and limbs, because we don't have aid or enough doctors except for them.
"The Israeli occupation destroyed the hospitals, and these international organisations came to Gaza. Even before the war, they were working."
Heba Dahdouh agreed.
"Our entire life will collapse. Everything will stop. We'll go back to hunger, siege, and destruction. Our lives will become even harder than before," she said.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, called the bans "outrageous" and said they could breach Israel's obligation to allow necessities of life to reach the Palestinian population.
"This is the latest in a pattern of unlawful restrictions on humanitarian access, including Israel's ban on UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East), as well as attacks on Israeli and Palestinian NGOs amid broader access issues faced by the UN and other humanitarians," he said.
"Such arbitrary suspensions make an already intolerable situation even worse for the people of Gaza."
The Israeli government said aid agencies have until March 1 to conduct an "orderly withdrawal" from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
It said organisations could still submit the required details in order to register.
"Registration remains open, organisations may still apply, and applications will continue to be reviewed and processed," COGAT said.
