Gaza Herald – International humanitarian organizations working in Gaza have rejected Israeli demands to hand over detailed information about their Palestinian staff, warning that compliance would put lives at risk. Eight major NGOs told Al Jazeera they will defy Israel’s new registration requirements despite threats to revoke their operating licenses, describing the move as an attempt to obstruct humanitarian work.
The groups, including Action Aid, Médecins du Monde, Premiere Urgence Internationale, Medical Aid for Palestinians and others, joined Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Oxfam in refusing to submit staff data such as passports, CVs and family details. Aid agencies said the demands violate humanitarian principles, data-protection standards and their duty of care toward local employees.
Israel has intensified pressure on international charities following the near-total destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system. Since October 2023, more than 550 aid workers have been killed, including 15 MSF staff. On January 1, Israeli authorities withdrew the licenses of 37 aid organizations, citing failure to comply with new “security and transparency” rules.
MSF, which operates 20 clinics and provides roughly 20 percent of Gaza’s hospital beds, said Israel ordered it to cease operations by February 28. The medical charity rejected allegations of employing fighters and said Israeli authorities failed to provide credible guarantees for staff safety or data protection. In 2025 alone, MSF conducted about 800,000 medical consultations and assisted one in three births in Gaza.
Humanitarian workers and medical professionals warned that banning established NGOs could pave the way for politically controlled “pseudo-humanitarian” structures. Doctors referenced the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation model, where hundreds of Palestinians were killed while seeking aid, as a precedent, raising fears of further violence under the guise of relief operations.
Aid organizations stressed that under international humanitarian law, Israel is obligated to facilitate, not obstruct, relief efforts. They warned that restricting aid, dismantling health services, and targeting humanitarian workers amounts to the systematic deepening of Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe, with potentially irreversible consequences for the civilian population.
