Gaza: Israel threatens to ban major aid organizations as starvation deepens

Many of the NGOs now told they are not “authorized” to deliver aid have worked in Gaza for decades,  are trusted by communities and experienced in delivering aid safely. Their exclusion has left hospitals without basic supplies, children, people with disabilities, and older people dying from hunger and preventable illnesses, and aid workers themselves going to work hungry.

The obstruction is tied to new INGO registration rules introduced in March. Under these new rules, registration can be denied on the basis of vague and politicized criteria, such as alleged “delegitimization” of the state of Israel. INGOs warned the process was designed to control independent organizations, silence advocacy, and censor humanitarian reporting. This new bureaucratic obstruction is inconsistent with established international law as it entrenches Israel’s control and annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Unless INGOs submit to the full registration requirements, including the mandatory submission of details of private donors, complete Palestinian staff lists and other sensitive information about personnel for so-called “security” vetting to Israeli authorities, many could be forced to halt operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and remove all international staff within 60 days.

Some organizations have even been issued a seven-day ultimatum to provide Palestinian staff lists. NGOs have made clear that sharing such data is unlawful (including under relevant data protection laws), unsafe, and incompatible with humanitarian principles. In the deadliest context for aid workers worldwide, where 98 percent of those humanitarians killed were Palestinian, NGOs have no guarantees that handing over such information would not put staff at further risk, or be used to advance the government of Israel's stated military and political aims.

Today, INGOs’ 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.

These restrictions are part of a broader strategy that includes the so-called “GHF” scheme – a militarized distribution mechanism promoted as a humanitarian solution. In reality, it is a deadly tool of control, with at least 859 Palestinians killed around “GHF” sites since it began operating.

Both the “GHF” scheme and the INGO registration process aim to block impartial aid, exclude Palestinian actors, and replace trusted humanitarian organizations with mechanisms that serve political and military objectives.

They come as the government of Israel escalates its military offensive and deepens its occupation in Gaza, making clear these measures are part of a broader strategy to entrench control and erase Palestinian presence.

We call on all states and donors to:

• Press Israel to end the weaponization of aid, including through bureaucratic obstruction,
  such as the INGO registration procedures.
• 
  Insist that INGOs are not forced to share sensitive personal information, in violation of
  the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or compromise staff safety or
  independence as a condition for delivering aid.
• 
  Demand the immediate and unconditional opening of all land crossings and conditions
  for the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid.

Editor’s Note

• The occupied Palestinian territory is the deadliest setting for aid workers worldwide, with Palestinian staff accounting for 98% of aid worker fatalities: 509 out of 517 killings that took place between 2023-2025, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.
• On 6 May, 55 organizations warned that Israel’s new INGO registration measures are a grave threat to humanitarian operations and international law.
• On 1 July, 200+ organizations called for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme, including the so-called “GHF” in Gaza, revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanisms, and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies.
• On 23 July, 100+ organizations warned that, as mass starvation spreads across Gaza, our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away.
• On 29 July, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) wrote that the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.
• Israel has consistently denied restricting the amount of aid allowed into Gaza, including throughout the period of July 2025, when most of the denials discussed in this statement were issued.
• On 31 July, OHCHR wrote that since 27 May, at least 1,373 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food; 859 in the vicinity of the “GHF” sites and 514 along the routes of food convoys. Most of these killings were committed by the Israeli forces.
• On 4 August, a Palestinian nurse in Gaza was killed when an airdrop struck him.
• On 5 August, it was reported that Israeli authorities are planning for the full occupation of the Gaza Strip.
• On 6 August, UN agencies and NGOs warned that without immediate action most international NGO partners could be de-registered by Israel in coming weeks.
• On 6 August, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) concluded that Israel’s information requests under the INGO registration process risk violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The DPA advised that INGOs should not comply with these requests, and that the only solution is for Israel to amend its requirements and for the relevant ministries to issue a formal protest.
• On 7 August, MSF released a report stating food distributions in Gaza run by the so-called "GHF" are sites of “orchestrated killing and dehumanization” that must be shut down."
• On 10 August, Save the Children reported the deaths of 100 children due to starvation in Gaza since October 2023.
• On 12 August, a group of UN Special Rapporteurs on human rights published a letter to the Israeli government, stating deep concern that the INGO registration measures “weaken the ability of INGOs to operate independently and impartially and to carry out their humanitarian and human rights work without interference or fear of reprisal” and that “that the obligation to report on INGO personnel, in the context of occupation, armed conflict and serious violations of international law, could raise serious protection and reprisal concerns.”