TEL AVIV (AP) — Israel’s decision to revoke the licenses of more than three dozen humanitarian 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, along with United Nations agencies. Those banned include Doctors Without Borders, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The groups do everything from providing tents and water to support clinics and medical facilities. The overall impact, however, remains unclear.
The most immediate impact of the revocation of the license is that Israel will no longer allow the groups to bring supplies into the Gaza Strip or send international staff into the territory. Israel says all suspended groups must cease their operations by March 1.
Some groups have already been stopped 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 serve specific crucial functions. In a joint statement on Tuesday, the UN and leading NGOs said the organizations still licensed by Israel “are nowhere near the number needed just to meet immediate and basic needs” in Gaza.
The ban continues to cripple aid operations even as the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza still face a humanitarian crisis more than 12 weeks after a 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 a 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 required groups to provide the names and personal details of local and international staff and said it would ban groups for a long list of critics of Israel.
The registration process is overseen by the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and the Fight against Anti-Semitism, headed by a member of the far-right ruling Likud party.
Israel says the rules aim to prevent Hamas and other militants from infiltrating the groups, something it said has been happening during the two-year war. The UN, which runs the massive aid program in Gaza, and independent groups deny Israeli allegations and claims of a major diversion of aid supplies by Hamas.
Aid organizations say they did not comply, in part, because they feared that providing staff with information could endanger them. 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 will use the data.
The groups also said Israel was vague about how it would use the data.
“Demanding personnel lists as a condition for access to the territory is a scandalous purpose,” Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said Friday. He said that Israeli officials rejected his attempts to find alternatives.
A December report on MSF issued by an Israeli government team recommended the denial of the group’s license. He pointed primarily to statements from the group that criticized Israel, including referring to its campaign in Gaza as genocide and calling its months-long ban on food entering the territory earlier this year a “starvation tactic.” She said the statements violated neutrality and constituted “delegitimization of Israel.”
The report also reiterated allegations that an MSF employee who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2024 was operative with the Islamic Jihad militant group. This, he said, suggested that MSF “maintains connections with a terrorist group.”
MSF on Friday denied the allegations, saying it “would never knowingly employ anyone involved in military activities.” She said her statements quoted by Israel simply described the destruction her teams saw in Gaza.
“The blame lies with those who commit these atrocities, not with those who speak about them,” he said.
Aid groups have a week from December 31 to appeal the process.
Medical services may see the biggest impact
Independent NGOs play a key role in supporting Gaza’s health sector, devastated by two years of Israeli bombardment and restrictions on supplies.
MSF said Israel’s decision will have a catastrophic impact on its work in Gaza, where it provides funding and international staff for six hospitals as well as running two field hospitals and eight primary health centres, clinics and medical points. It also runs two of Gaza’s five stabilization centers that help children with severe malnutrition.
Its teams have treated 100,000 trauma cases, performed surgeries on 10,000 patients and treated a third of Gaza’s births, the group says. It has 60 international employees in the West Bank and Gaza and more than 1,200 local employees — mostly medical professionals.
Since the ceasefire began in early October, MSF has brought in about 7% of the 2,239 tons (2,032 metric tons) of medical supplies that Israel has allowed into Gaza, according to a UN tracking dashboard. This makes it the largest supplier of medical supplies after the UN agencies and the Red Cross, according to the dashboard.
Medecins du Monde, another group whose license is being suspended, runs four other primary health clinics.
Overburdened Palestinian staff
Aid groups said the most immediate impact would likely 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 boost for our staff who are already feeling isolated,” said Shaina Low, communications consultant for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which is one of the main NGOs providing shelter supplies and fresh water to displaced people.
The NRC has approximately 30 international staff who travel in and out of Gaza working alongside approximately 70 Palestinians.
While any of the group’s 37 operations in the West Bank will likely remain open, those with offices in East Jerusalem, which Israel considers its territory, may have to close.
Stop on supplies
Most 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 formal revocation of the license is “that these practices are now formalized, giving Israel complete impunity to restrict operations and shut down organizations it disagrees with,” she said.
Some of the groups have turned to buying supplies inside Gaza rather than bringing them in, but this is slower and more expensive, she said. Other groups dug into reserve stocks, reduced distribution and had to work with broken or badly repaired equipment because they could not bring in new ones.
Amed Khan, an American humanitarian philanthropist who has been privately donating emergency medicine and nutrition for children to Gaza, said the impact extends beyond aid groups.
It relies on NGOs to receive and distribute supplies, but the fewer groups Israel approves, the harder it is to find one.
“It’s death by bureaucracy,” he said.