New Israeli legislation regulating foreign aid groups has been increasingly used to deny their requests to bring supplies into Gaza, a joint letter signed by more than 100 groups said Thursday.
Ties between foreign-backed aid groups and the Israeli government have long been beset by tensions, with officials often complaining the organisations are biased.
The rocky relations have become even more strained since Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.
“Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organisations are ‘not authorised to deliver aid’,” the aid groups said.
According to the letter, whose signatories include Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), at least 60 requests to bring aid into Gaza were rejected in July alone.
UK-based Oxfam said that $2.5 million worth of its supplies, including food, were barred from entering Gaza, while another charity, CARE, said it had not been authorised to bring in aid since March.
Another signatory, Anera, said it had millions of dollars’ worth of supplies waiting just outside Gaza, in the Israeli port city of Ashdod.
“Anera has over $7 million worth of lifesaving supplies ready to enter Gaza – including 744 tons of rice, enough for six million meals, blocked in Ashdod just kilometres away,” CEO Sean Carroll said in the joint letter.
In March, the Israeli government approved a new set of rules for foreign non-governmental organisations working with Palestinians.
The law updates the framework for how aid groups must register to maintain their status within Israel, along with provisions that outline how their applications can be denied or registration revoked.
Registration can be refused if Israeli authorities deem that a group denies the democratic character of Israel or “promotes delegitimisation campaigns” against the country.
“Unfortunately, many aid organisations serve as a cover for hostile and sometimes violent activity,” said Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, whose ministry has been put in charge of NGO registrations.
“Organisations that have no connection to hostile or violent activity and no ties to the boycott movement will be granted permission to operate,” he added.
– Deadly distributions –
The aid groups complained the new rules were leaving Gazans without life-saving assistance.
“Today, international NGOs’ fears have proven true: the registration system is now being used to further block aid and deny food and medicine in the midst of the worst-case scenario of famine”, their joint letter concluded.
“Our mandate is to save lives but due to the registration restrictions, civilians are being left without the food, medicine and protection they urgently need,” said Jolien Veldwijk, Palestinian territories director for CARE.
Israel has long accused Hamas of diverting aid entering the territory under the longstanding UN-led distribution system.
Since May, it has distributed aid through the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an organisation that is boycotted by the United Nations and other aid groups for serving Israeli military objectives.
According to Gaza’s civil defence agency, the GHF’s operations have been frequently marred by chaos as thousands of Gazans have scrambled daily to approach its hubs, where some have been shot, including by Israeli soldiers.
In late July, the United Nations reported that at least 1,373 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza since May 27 while awaiting or searching for aid.
International NGOs now fear they could be barred from operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories altogether if they do not submit sensitive information about their Palestinian staff to the Israeli government.
The deadline for information submission is in September, at which point “many could be forced to halt operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and remove all international staff within 60 days.”
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