# Israel suspends more than two dozen aid groups from Gaza over new registration rules
Event date: 2025-12-30
Israel said it would suspend more than two dozen humanitarian organizations from operating in Gaza because they had not met new registration rules, a move that will shut some groups out of both Gaza and their offices in Israel and East Jerusalem. The announcement immediately raised alarms among aid agencies that already say the humanitarian system in Gaza is under extreme strain.
The rules require organizations to register worker names and provide details about funding and operations. They also include ideological criteria that can disqualify groups that have called for boycotts of Israel, denied the Oct. 7 attack or backed cases at international courts against Israeli soldiers or leaders. Israel said the rules were meant to prevent Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating aid structures.
The organizations on the list include Doctors Without Borders, CARE and the Norwegian Refugee Council. MSF said the decision would have a catastrophic effect on its work and said it supports around 20% of hospital beds and a third of births in Gaza. The NRC said the suspension would block essential assistance at a time when needs remain enormous, while local staff would be left carrying more of the burden if international workers were kept out.
Aid groups pushed back hard on the requirement to hand over staff lists, arguing that doing so under occupation raises safety and neutrality concerns. The association representing more than 100 organizations in the Palestinian territories said many groups had proposed alternatives such as third-party vetting, but that Israel refused to engage. It also noted that more than 500 aid workers have been killed in Gaza during the war, making the data request especially sensitive.
COGAT, the Israeli body overseeing humanitarian aid to Gaza, said the affected groups accounted for less than 1% of total aid entering the territory and that more than 20 permitted organizations would keep operating. It also said the new registration process was intended to prevent aid from being exploited by Hamas. The groups can appeal, but the practical effect of the order is clear: a major source of international relief has been put on notice at a time when Gaza's civilian population still depends on outside assistance.
For aid agencies, the most alarming part of the order is not just the loss of permits but the precedent the rules set. Humanitarian groups argued that third-party vetting would meet Israel's security concerns without turning aid organizations into extensions of a belligerent's intelligence process, and AIDA said Israel refused to engage in alternatives. That argument goes to the heart of humanitarian neutrality: if an authority in a conflict can demand worker lists and sift groups by political views, aid delivery becomes harder to separate from the war around it. Israel's claim that the suspended groups account for less than 1% of aid may be numerically true, but the organizations say the timing and the principle matter more than the percentage, especially with a fragile ceasefire still in place.
