Foreign NGOs say new Israeli rules keep them from delivering Gaza aid

New Israeli legislation regulating foreign aid groups has been increasingly used to deny their requests to bring supplies into Gaza, according to a joint letter signed by more than 100 groups published Thursday.

Ties between foreign-backed aid groups and the Israeli government have long been beset by tensions, with officials often complaining the organisations are biased.

The rocky relations have only gotten more strained in the wake of Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel in October 2023.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 235 people including 106 children have died of hunger since the war began in October 2023, with many of the cases recorded in recent weeks.

"Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organisations are 'not authorised to deliver aid'," the joint statement reads.

People stand in front of a warehouse for aid deliveries, waiting to be delivered to Gaza, at a logistics site run by the Egyptian Red Crescent, outside Arish, Egypt. Reuters

According to the letter, whose signatories include Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders (MSF), at least 60 requests to bring aid into Gaza were rejected in July alone.

In March, Israel's government approved a new set of rules for foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working with Palestinians.

The law updates the framework for how aid groups must register to maintain their status within Israel, along with provisions that outline how their applications can be denied or registration revoked.

Registration can be rejected if Israeli authorities deem that a group denies the democratic character of Israel or "promotes delegitimisation campaigns" against the country.

Radwan Radwan, father of displaced Palestinian boy Bader Radwan who shelters with his parents and five siblings in a destroyed clinic, helps his son unpack the contents of a food supplies package, which includes a bag of lentils, cooking oil, rice, flour, tahini (ground sesame seeds), and cans of meat, fava beans, hummus, white beans, and tomato sauce, after collecting it from aid trucks that entered Gaza through Israel, in Gaza City, on Wednesday. Reuters

"Unfortunately, many aid organisations serve as a cover for hostile and sometimes violent activity," Israel's Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli told the media.

"Organisations that have no connection to hostile or violent activity and no ties to the boycott movement will be granted permission to operate," added Chikli, whose ministry directed an effort to produce the new guideline.

Aid groups say, however, that the new rules are leaving Gazans without help.

"Our mandate is to save lives, but due to the registration restrictions civilians are being left without the food, medicine and protection they urgently need," said Jolien Veldwijk, director of the charity CARE in the Palestinian territories.

Veldwijk said that CARE has not been able to deliver any aid to Gaza since Israel imposed a full blockade on the Palestinian territory in March, despite partially easing it in May.

Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid entering the Strip, and since May, the government has relied on the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to manage food distribution centres.

According to Gaza's civil defence agency, its operations have been frequently marred by chaos as thousands of Gazans have scrambled each day to approach its hubs, where some have been shot, including by Israeli soldiers.

Agence France-Presse