Gaza, 2 January 2026 – Israeli authorities have decided to suspend the operation of 37 local and international NGOs operating in Gaza and the West Bank, including well-established international organizations with long-standing professional records in delivering life-saving humanitarian assistance.

According to a statement issued by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs on Tuesday, 30 December 2025, organizations that failed to submit lists of their Palestinian staff for screening—under the pretext of identifying alleged links to “terrorism”—will have their licenses revoked as of 1 January 2026 and will be required to cease all activities by 1 March 2026.

The Ministry stated that approximately 15 percent of NGOs operating in Gaza had failed to comply with newly imposed registration and vetting requirements and would therefore have their licences suspended. Media reports indicate that these requirements extend beyond administrative compliance to include scrutiny of organizations’ political positions, including alleged support for boycott initiatives, engagement with international legal proceedings involving Israeli personnel, and positions relating to the events of 7 October 2023.

The decision includes a list of several prominent international humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), Oxfam International, the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE International, the International Rescue Committee, Caritas Internationalis, the American Friends Service Committee, DanChurchAid, Medico International, and Medical Aid for Palestinians UK, in addition to other organizations addressing food insecurity, health, education, and providing social services.

Israeli authorities have claimed that this decision will not affect the flow of humanitarian assistance; however, such assertions are contradicted by realities on the ground. The exclusion of this number of organizations, including leading international humanitarian actors, will inevitably result in a serious decline in access to essential services, foremost among them health care, water, food, and protection. This comes amid a catastrophic and unprecedented humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Palestinians face escalating risks that threaten their lives and dignity.

It is clear that this decision serves instead as a pretext to further restrict humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and undermine the impartiality of trusted NGOs. This decision is yet another example in Israel’s escalating pattern of restricting humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and undermining the impartiality of trusted NGOs, starting with the targeting of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). This trajectory has now further intensified to encompass dozens of humanitarian and relief NGOs, emblematic of a broader, systematic policy aimed at targeting civil society and humanitarian work, thereby shrinking spaces that provide humanitarian assistance and protect human rights. These measures exclude trusted and impartial actors from providing services, thereby paving the way for entities that serve political and security interests and which are lacking in transparency and impartiality.

Al Mezan affirms that Israel’s targeting local and international organizations cannot be considered in isolation, but as part of Israel’s broader campaign of genocide against the Palestinians people. Israel’s attacks on the presence of humanitarian organizations in Palestinian territory are deliberate attempts to dismantle the structures that support the presence, resilience, and survival of the Palestinian people. By depriving Palestinians of essential, life-saving humanitarian services, Israel further deepens the suffering and isolation of Palestinians in Gaza as part of its genocide, illegal occupation and settler-colonial regime of apartheid. Al Mezan further emphasizes that the protection of humanitarian action is not a procedural or technical matter, but a legal and moral obligation that must not be manipulated or subordinated to political considerations.

Accordingly, Al Mezan condemns Israel’s suspension of the licenses of 37 NGOs operating in Gaza and the West Bank, and stresses that this measure requires urgent attention from the international community. Al Mezan calls on the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to act to ensure the reversal of this measure and to safeguard the continued operation of humanitarian organizations without arbitrary political or security restrictions.

Al Mezan further calls on the international community to take concrete steps to protect humanitarian spaces, safeguard the independence of relief organizations, and ensure the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance into Gaza. The Center also urges donor states to reject any alternative arrangements that undermine humanitarian principles or exclude independent organizations, to maintain funding and support for humanitarian actors, and to support an independent international examination of the policies and measures obstructing humanitarian action in the occupied Palestinian territory, with a view to ensuring accountability.