UN rights chief: Israel’s new Gaza aid agency rules ‘outrageous’

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, on Wednesday slammed Israel’s threat to ban the operations of numerous international aid agencies in Gaza Strip.

The Israeli authorities have demanded that non-governmental organizations (NGO) go through a new registration process in order to continue their work after January 1, 2026, in the largely destroyed Gaza Strip.

Many such agencies have rejected the requirement as unlawful. If not authorized they would then have to cease their activities by March, according to the Foreign Ministry, in a move that could also affect large agencies such as Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and many others.

Türk called the Israeli government’s move “outrageous.”

“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.

He called on countries to do everything they can to change the Israeli government’s mind. At least 10 foreign ministers from Europe, Canada and Japan have already written to the Israeli government.

“The registration requirement serves to prevent the involvement of terrorist elements and to protect the integrity of humanitarian work,” according to the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The Diaspora Ministry said 37 agencies have been affected by the withdrawal of their licences so far.

organizations active in Gaza are required to disclose all information about their Palestinian employees, including confidential information, for registration purposes, under the regulation.

This “also allows for vague, arbitrary, and politicized denials,” said Athena Rayburn, director of AIDA, a network of more than 100 aid organizations in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

“Agreeing for a party to the conflict to vet our staff, especially under the conditions of occupation, is a violation of humanitarian principles, specifically neutrality and independence,” she told dpa.

That would mean the organizations would also be violating Palestinian laws as well as those of their home nations.

The agencies have offered to have their employees vetted by neutral actors, but Israel refused to allow this, she said.