Sawt Falasteen - NGOs fear 'catastrophic impact' of new Israel registration rules

The NGOs have until December 31 to register under the new framework, which Israel says aims not to impede aid distribution but to prevent "hostile actors or supporters of terrorism" operating in the Palestinian territories.

The controversy comes with Gaza, which lacks running water and electricity, still battling a humanitarian crisis even after the US-brokered October ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, sparked by the Palestinian militant group's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism told AFP that, as of November 2025, approximately 100 registration requests had been submitted and "only 14 organisation requests have been rejected ... The remainder have been approved or are currently under review."

Requests are rejected for "organisations involved in terrorism, antisemitism, delegitimisation of Israel, Holocaust denial, denial of the crimes of October 7," it said.

- 'Very problematic' -

The amount of aid entering Gaza remains inadequate. While the October 10 ceasefire agreement stipulated the entry of 600 trucks per day, only 100 to 300 are carrying humanitarian aid, according to NGOs and the United Nations.

The NGOs barred under the new rules include Save the Children, one of the best known and oldest in Gaza, where it helps 120,000 children, and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

They are being given 60 days to withdraw all their international staff from the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and Israel, and will no longer be able to deliver any aid.

The forum that brings together UN agencies and NGOs working in the area on Thursday issued a statement urging Israel to "lift all impediments", including the new registration process, that "risk the collapse of the humanitarian response".

The Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (HCT) warned that dozens of NGOs face deregistration and that, while some had been registered, "these NGOs represent only a fraction of the response in Gaza and are nowhere near the number required just to meet immediate and basic needs."

"The deregistration of NGOs in Gaza will have a catastrophic impact on access to essential and basic services," it said.

NGOs contacted by AFP, several of whom declined to be quoted on the record due to the sensitivity of the issue, say they complied with most of Israel's requirements to provide a complete dossier.

Some, however, refused to cross what they described as a "red line" of providing information about their Palestinian staff.

"After speaking about genocide, denouncing the conditions under which the war was being waged and the restrictions imposed on the entry of aid, we tick all the boxes" to fail the registration, predicted the head of one NGO.

"Once again, bureaucratic pressure is being used for political control, with catastrophic consequences," said the relief worker.

Rights groups and NGOs including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a term vehemently rejected by the Israeli government.

"If NGOs are considered to be harmful for passing on testimonies from populations, carrying out operational work and saying what is happening and this leads to a ban on working, then this is very problematic," said Jean-Francois Corty, president of French NGO Medecins du Monde.

- 'Every little criticism' -

The most contentious requirement for the NGOs is to prove they do not work for the "delegitimisation" of Israel, a term that appears related to calling into question Israel's right to exist but which aid workers say is dangerously vague.

"Israel sees every little criticism as a reason to deny their registration... We don't even know what delegitimisation actually means," said Yotam Ben-Hillel, an Israeli lawyer who is assisting several NGOs with the process and has filed legal appeals.

He said the applications of some NGOs had already been turned down on these grounds.

"So every organisation that operates in Gaza and the West Bank and sees what happens and reports on that could be declared as illegal now, because they just report on what they see," he told AFP.

With the December 31 deadline looming in just over a fortnight, concerns focus on what will happen in early 2026 if the NGOs that are selected lack the capacity and expertise of organisations with a long-standing presence.

Several humanitarian actors told AFP they had "never heard of" some of the accredited NGOs, which currently have no presence in Gaza but were reportedly included in Trump's plan for Gaza.

"The United States is starting from scratch, and with the new registration procedure, some NGOs will leave," said a European diplomatic source in the region, asking not to be named. "They might wake up on January 1 and realise there is no-one to replace them."

P.AbuBaker--SF-PST