Most aid agencies may be forced to leave Gaza and West Bank

Source: HCT

The Humanitarian Country Team* of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (HCT) said in a statement today: United Nations agencies and NGOs are calling on Israeli authorities to rescind the requirement introduced on 9 March obliging international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to share sensitive personal information about their Palestinian employees or face termination of their humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Unless urgent action is taken, humanitarian organisations warn that most international NGO partners could be de-registered by 9 September or sooner - forcing them to withdraw all international staff and preventing them from providing critical, life-saving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians. This requirement is part of a set of new restrictive conditions for international NGOs which include potential consequences for public criticism of policies and practices of the Government of Israel.

Already, NGOs that are not registered under the new system are prohibited from sending any supplies to Gaza. In July this year, Israeli authorities rejected repeated requests by 29 NGOs to ship humanitarian aid to Gaza citing the organizations as "not authorized". This policy has already prevented the delivery of life-saving aid including medicine, food, and hygiene items. This most profoundly affects women, children, older people, and persons with disabilities, further aggravating the risk of being subjected to abuse and exploitation.

International NGOs also provide critical support to Palestinian NGOs who rely on international partners for supplies, funding, and technical support. Without this cooperation, their operations will be severed, cutting off even more communities from food, medical care, shelter and critical protection services.

Impeding NGOs from participating in the collective humanitarian response violates Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law and comes at a time when we are receiving daily reports of death by starvation as Gaza faces famine conditions.

* The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is a strategic decision-making forum led by the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It brings together heads of UN entities and over 200 NGOs - both international and local - all working on humanitarian affairs in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under internationally agreed humanitarian principles.