Gaza: Aid Groups Warn of Shutdown Over Israeli Policy

The UN works with a range of local partners in Gaza to reach those most in need and to carry out vital prevention work such as polio vaccination campaigns.

Aid agencies warned on Tuesday that most partner organisations providing vital relief across Gaza may be forced to shut down within weeks unless Israel withdraws its demand for sensitive information about Palestinian employees.

The measure – which also applies to the occupied West Bank – stems from an Israeli requirement introduced on 9 March affecting international non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“Unless urgent action is taken… 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, lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians,” said UN and partner agencies, collectively known as the Humanitarian Country Team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).

Many UN agencies still operate in Gaza, working closely with NGO partners to reach the enclave’s most vulnerable. International NGOs play a key role by supplying Palestinian NGOs with goods, funding, and technical support.

“Without this cooperation, operations will be severed, cutting off more communities from food, medical care, shelter, and critical protection services,” the Humanitarian Country Team warned. The group, overseen by the UN’s top aid official in OPT, includes heads of UN agencies and over 200 local and international NGOs.

NGOs that have not registered under the new system are already barred from sending supplies to Gaza. Last month, Israeli authorities denied 29 organisations’ repeated requests to ship humanitarian aid, citing them as “not authorised.”

“This policy has already blocked the delivery of lifesaving aid, including medicine, food, and hygiene items,” the humanitarian group said. “It most severely affects women, children, older people, and persons with disabilities, increasing the risk of abuse and exploitation.”

In a statement urging Israel to reconsider its demand for sensitive employee data, the group stressed that obstructing humanitarian work violates international law “when we are receiving daily reports of death by starvation as Gaza faces famine conditions.”

Meanwhile, reports on Wednesday said at least 20 people were killed and dozens more injured in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, after a convoy of aid trucks overturned into a crowd on Tuesday.

Local authorities said desperate people had climbed onto the trucks before the drivers lost control.

According to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, 90 per cent of aid brought into Gaza since 20 July has been “offloaded by hungry crowds or looted by armed gangs.”

People approaching aid convoys near Israeli military checkpoints continue to be killed and wounded, OCHA said, citing health authorities who reported 1,516 deaths and over 10,000 injuries at militarised distribution sites or along aid convoy routes between 27 May and 4 August.