International NGOs race to stop Israeli shutdown order

More than a dozen international humanitarian organisations have petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to block an imminent order that would force 37 NGOs to cease operations in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, warning of “catastrophic” consequences for civilians.

NGOs including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE, were notified on December 30, 2025 that their Israeli registrations had expired and that they had 60 days to renew them by providing lists of their Palestinian staff.

The petition, filed by 17 organisations, including some of the NGOs hit by the ban, seeks from Israel’s top court an urgent interim injunction to suspend the closures pending full judicial review.

Hamas on Tuesday called for sanctions against Israel, welcoming a joint condemnation by nearly 20 countries of new Israeli measures aimed at tightening control over the occupied West Bank.

Israel has approved a series of initiatives this month backed by far-right ministers, including launching a process to register land in the West Bank as “state property” and allowing Israelis to purchase land there directly.

Late on Monday, 18 countries including regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and European powers France and Spain, slammed Israel over the recent moves.

They “are part of a clear trajectory that aims to change the reality on the ground and to advance unacceptable de facto annexation”, the countries said.

“Such actions are a deliberate and direct attack on the viability of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution.”

Hamas hailed the condemnation as “a step in the right direction in confronting the occupation’s expansionist plans, which flagrantly violate international law and relevant UN resolutions”.

The group in a statement urged the countries involved “to impose deterrent sanctions and exert pressure on the fascist occupation government to halt its policies aimed at entrenching annexation, colonial settlement and forced displacement”.

It said the Israeli measures were part of ongoing “aggression” against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

Israel’s current government has accelerated settlement expansion, approving a record 54 settlements in 2025, according to activists.

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, is envisioned as the core of a future Palestinian state, but many on Israel’s religious right view it as part of Israel’s historic homeland.

The European Union’s top diplomats met Monday in Brussels with the director of the Board of Peace after a shaky and controversial embrace of U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure and rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

Nikolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and UN diplomat chosen by Trump to manage the Board of Peace, met the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and foreign ministers from across the 27-nation bloc. The EU diplomats were also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine and fresh sanctions on Russia.

“We want to be part of the peace process in Gaza and also contribute with what we have,” Kallas said ahead of the meeting. Afterward, she said Mladenov updated diplomats on the humanitarian situation in Gaza and the Board of Peace’s activities and strategy, which included an EU presence in stabilization and humanitarian efforts.

“It was good to hear from Mladenov that it’s really right now trying to improve the situation, that he sees this in the same way, that actually they also need us there contributing,” Kallas said.

One EU nation blocked new sanctions on Israeli settlers agreed by the rest of the bloc, she said, without naming the holdout. The EU’s planned training of Palestinian police in Gaza is awaiting approval by Israel, Kallas said.

Just across the Mediterranean Sea from the Middle East, the EU has deep links to Israel and the Palestinians. It now plays a crucial oversight role at Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, and is the top donor to the Palestinian Authority.

Agencies