Israel to suspend operations of several aid groups in Gaza as countries warn of renewed ‘catastrophic’ humanitarian crisis
By Helen Regan, Hira Humayun, Eugenia Yosef and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN
(CNN) — Several international humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), face being barred from working in Gaza from Thursday for failing to comply with Israel’s new restrictions for aid groups operating in the devastated enclave.
Israel said Tuesday it will suspend the operations of international aid groups that did not renew their registration, which includes requiring organizations working in Gaza to provide personal details of their staff members.
Aid agencies have repeatedly voiced concerns over those requirements, citing the safety of their employees.
Israel’s move comes as 10 countries warned that Gaza’s humanitarian situation is facing “renewed deterioration” and that conditions in the enclave “remain catastrophic.”
Gaza, which lies in ruins, is enduring a harsh winter, with heavy rain and plunging temperatures worsening already dire living conditions.
Fierce rain and strong winds have destroyed the flimsy, waterlogged tents many Palestinians are forced to survive in, and at least 20 people have been killed by homes and buildings collapsing as they sought shelter from the severe weather conditions, according to the Hamas-run Government Media Office in Gaza (GMO).
“As winter draws in, civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping,” the foreign ministers of Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said in a statement Tuesday.
Relief groups say Israel’s decision affects more than two dozen aid organizations and that suspending their operations in Gaza “will cost the lives of Palestinians.”
“Removing these humanitarian organizations now will deepen exposure, illness, and preventable deaths,” Refugees International said in a statement. “It is a pretext to further restrict aid to Gaza while silencing independent aid organizations.”
Israel said its registration rules are to prevent Hamas from exploiting international aid, a claim the UN and aid groups have rejected. A US government review earlier this year found no evidence of widespread theft by Hamas, claims both Israel and the US State Department have made.
“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 Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement.
Concerns over Israel’s registration rules
UN agencies and aid groups had repeatedly voiced concerns over Israel’s registration rules.
Israel said it notified international organizations in March that they needed to comply with the requirements. It said those who did not renew their registration were told their authorization would end on January 1 and they would have to withdraw two months later.
The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli agency tasked with facilitating aid distribution in Gaza, said medical charity MSF “chose not to cooperate with the registration process and refused to provide Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs with a list of its employees, as required by a government decision.”
CNN has reached out to MSF for comment.
Aid agencies have balked at Israel’s new requirements.
“The system relies on vague, arbitrary, and highly politicized criteria and imposes requirements that humanitarian organizations cannot meet without violating international legal obligations or compromising core humanitarian principles,” the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a forum that brings together UN agencies and more than 200 local and international organisations, said in December.
In May, Oxfam raised concerns over the requirement to submit staff lists and other information about staff members and their families to Israel, following deadly attacks on aid workers in Gaza.
“In a context where humanitarian and healthcare workers are routinely subject to harassment, detention, and direct attacks, this raises serious protection concerns,” Oxfam said in a statement.
MSF, one of the largest medical operations operating in Gaza, said losing access “would be a disaster for Palestinians.”
“If MSF loses its access to Gaza in 2026, due to the Israeli authorities, a large portion of people in Gaza will lose access to critical medical care, water, and lifesaving support,” the medical agency said in a statement earlier this month. “MSF’s activities serve nearly half a million people in Gaza through our vital support to the destroyed health system.”
COGAT has claimed the groups facing suspension did not bring aid into Gaza throughout the current ceasefire and the “government decision will not result in any future harm to the volume of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.”
It said 4,200 trucks would continue to enter Gaza each week through the UN, donor countries, the private sector, and more than 20 international organizations that have been registered.
However, a group of more than 40 organizations, including MSF and Oxfam, said in October that Israel had continued to “arbitrarily reject shipments of life-saving assistance” since the ceasefire.
More than a dozen international aid groups had “urgent shipments of aid, including water, food, tents and medical supplies denied entry into Gaza,” the group said, on the grounds that most organizations were “not authorized” to deliver aid.
The 10 foreign ministers warning about conditions in Gaza urged the Israeli government to take “urgent and essential steps,” including ensuring international NGOs can continue operating in the strip and allowing the UN and its partners to carry out their humanitarian work.
They also called on Israel to “open crossings and boost the flows of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”
At least 1.3 million people still require urgent shelter, while more than half of Gaza’s health facilities are only partially functioning because of shortages of essential medical supplies, the statement said. It added that the collapse of sanitation infrastructure had left around 740,000 people vulnerable to toxic flooding.
Over the weekend, severe weather contributed to further deaths. Gaza’s civil defense said two people, including a 7-year-old child, were killed on Sunday when a wall collapsed due to the cold conditions.
Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the joint statement, calling it “false but unsurprising.”
The statement reflects “a recurring pattern of detached criticism and one-sided demands on Israel, while deliberately ignoring the essential requirement of disarming Hamas – a prerequisite for the security of Israel and the region,” the ministry said in a post on X.
It also criticized the statement for overlooking what it called the “significant improvement in the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire,” attributing the progress to Israel’s efforts alongside the United States.
Netanyahu in United States
The alarm from multiple western nations over the winter aid crisis comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues a visit to the United States, where he was warmly greeted by President Donald Trump.
In an interview that aired on Tuesday, Fox News’ Brett Baier asked Netanyahu whether he sees an international stabilization force on the ground and a new government in Gaza in 2026.
“A new government in Gaza is possible if you disarm Hamas,” Netanyahu said. “No one’s going to come in there if Hamas stays armed and will put a bullet right through the back of their head, of any potential new government.”
“If we disarm Hamas, whether with an international force or by any other means, yes, I see a different future for Gaza.”
The interview aired a day after Netanyahu met with Trump in Florida. Netanyahu told Baier that he and the US president “saw eye to eye” and that he didn’t hear any frustration from Trump about Israel’s recent strikes on Gaza.
“He understands,” Netanyahu said of Trump.
In a statement on Monday Hamas rejected calls of disarmament. The group’s new spokesperson Hudhaifa Samir Abdullah al-Kahlout said “our people are defending themselves and will not give up their weapons as long as the occupation remains.”
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CNN’s Benjamin Brown contributed reporting.
