TEL AVIV (AP) — Israel’s decision to revoke the licenses of more than three dozen aid organizations this week has aid groups grappling with what it means for their operations in Gaza and their ability to help tens of thousands of struggling Palestinians.
The 37 groups represent some of the most prominent of the more than 100 independent non-governmental organizations working in Gaza alongside United Nations agencies. Among those banned are Doctors Without Borders, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The groups do everything from providing tents and water to supporting clinics and medical facilities. The overall impact, however, remains unclear.
The most immediate impact of revoking the license is that Israel will no longer allow groups to bring supplies into the Gaza Strip or send international personnel into the territory. Israel says all suspended groups must cease operations by March 1.
Some groups have already been banned from bringing aid. The Norwegian Refugee Council, for example, said it had not been allowed to bring in supplies for 10 months, leaving it to distribute tents and aid brought by other groups.
Israel says banned groups make up only a small part of aid operations in Gaza.
But aid officials say they perform crucial specific functions. In a joint statement on Tuesday, the UN and leading NGOs said the organizations still authorized by Israel “do not come close to the numbers needed just to meet the immediate and basic needs” in Gaza.
The ban further strains aid operations, even as the more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza still face a humanitarian crisis more than 12 weeks after the ceasefire. The UN says that although hunger has been stopped, more than a quarter of families still eat only one meal a day and food prices remain unaffordable for many; more than 1 million people need better tents as winter storms hit the territory.
Why were their licenses revoked?
Earlier this year, Israel introduced strict new registration requirements for aid agencies working in Gaza. In particular, it demanded the groups provide the names and personal details of local and international staff and said it would ban groups for a long list of criticisms of Israel.
The registration process is overseen by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anti-Semitism, headed by a far-right member of the ruling Likud party.
Israel says the rules aim to prevent Hamas and other militants from infiltrating the groups, which it said has happened during the two-year war. The UN, which runs the massive aid program in Gaza, and independent groups deny Israeli accusations and claims of major aid embezzlement by Hamas.
Aid organizations say they did not comply, in part, because they feared handing over information about staff could put them at risk. More than 500 aid workers have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the United Nations.
Israel denies targeting aid workers. But the group says Israel has been vague about how it would use the data.
The groups also said Israel was vague about how it would use the data.
“Requiring staff lists as a condition for access to the territory is a scandalous overreach,” Médecins Sans Frontières, known by its French acronym MSF, said on Friday. He said Israeli officials had rebuffed his attempts to find alternatives.
A December report on MSF by an Israeli government team recommended denying the group’s license. She primarily pointed to the group’s statements critical of Israel, including referring to its campaign in Gaza as genocide and calling the months-long food ban on the territory earlier this year “a starvation tactic.” It said the statements violated neutrality and constituted “delegitimization of Israel.”
The report also repeated claims that an MSF worker killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2024 was an operative of the Islamic Jihad militant group. This, it said, suggests that MSF “maintains links with a terrorist group”.
MSF denied the allegations on Friday, saying it would “never knowingly employ anyone involved in military activities”. She said her statements cited by Israel simply described the destruction her teams witnessed in Gaza.
“The blame lies with those who commit these atrocities, not with those who speak about them,” it says.
Aid groups have a week from December 31 to appeal the lawsuit.
Medical services could have the biggest impact
Independent NGOs play a major role in supporting Gaza’s health sector, devastated by two years of Israeli bombardment and supply restrictions.
MSF said Israel’s decision would have a catastrophic impact on its work in Gaza, where it provides funding and international staff for six hospitals, as well as managing two field hospitals and eight primary health centres, clinics and medical points. He also runs two of the five stabilization centers in Gaza, which help severely malnourished children.
Its teams have treated 100,000 trauma cases, performed surgery on 10,000 patients and attended to a third of Gaza’s births, the group says. It has 60 international staff in the West Bank and Gaza and more than 1,200 local staff – mostly medical professionals.
Since the ceasefire began in early October, MSF has brought in about 7 percent of the 2,239 tons (2,032 metric tons) of medical supplies that Israel has allowed into Gaza, according to a UN tracking dashboard. That makes it the largest supplier of medical supplies after UN agencies and the Red Cross, according to the dashboard.
Medecins du Monde, another group whose license is suspended, runs four other primary health clinics.
Overburdened Palestinian staff
Aid groups say the most immediate impact is likely to be the inability to send international staff to Gaza.
Foreign staff provide key technical expertise and emotional support for their Palestinian colleagues.
“Having an international presence in Gaza is a morale booster for our staff who already feel isolated,” said Shaina Low, communications adviser for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which is one of the main NGOs providing shelter and fresh water to displaced people.
The NRC has about 30 international staff who rotate in and out of Gaza, working alongside about 70 Palestinians.
While any operations of the 37 groups in the West Bank will likely remain open, those with offices in East Jerusalem, which Israel considers its territory, may have to close.
Stop your supplies
Many of the 37 groups have already been blocked from bringing supplies into Gaza since March, said Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam’s policy leader for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
What changes with the official revocation of the license is “that these practices are now formalized, giving Israel total impunity to restrict operations and shut down organizations it disagrees with,” she said.
Some of the groups have turned to buying supplies in Gaza instead of bringing them in, but that is slower and more expensive, she said. Other groups dug into spare stocks, cut distribution and had to work with broken or hard-to-repair equipment because they couldn’t bring in new ones.
Amed Khan, an American humanitarian philanthropist who has privately donated emergency medicine and food for children in Gaza, said the impact extends beyond aid groups.
He relies on NGOs to receive and distribute supplies, but the fewer groups Israel approves, the harder it is to find one.
“It’s the death of bureaucracy,” he said.