Israeli court suspends ban on aid organizations

Among other things, those affected include: Doctors Without Borders and Oxfam. After an urgent application from Doctors Without Borders and others, a Supreme Court judge issued an interim injunction suspending the ban on their activities. Hearings on the lawsuit against the registration law should take place as soon as possible.

Organizations can only continue to operate to a limited extent

The head of operations for Doctors Without Borders in the occupied Palestinian territories, Marcus Bachmannwelcomed this. However, the organizations could only continue to work to a limited extent. All international employees have already left as ordered and are unlikely to receive permission to return, said Bachmann. Doctors Without Borders had around 80 foreign specialists on site, each of whom was deployed for around three months.

As has been the case since the beginning of January, the organization has also been unable to bring medicines and materials into the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. “The entire emergency medical response now rests on the shoulders of around 1,600 local employees,” he said. They would continue their work, even under difficult conditions. There are warehouses with material for about two more months.

Médecins Sans Frontières cannot provide the confidential information required for registration without data protection guarantees, said Bachmann. “We have duties of care as employers that we have to live up to. That is non-negotiable,” he said.

Israel wants to prevent “involvement of terrorist elements” through registration

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the registration was intended to prevent the involvement of “terrorist elements” in the relief operations. There have been such cases: Israel killed an employee of Doctors Without Borders in the Gaza War in 2024; The terrorist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) confirmed just a few days ago that the man was a high-ranking member of the group.

Critics see the Israeli registration requirements for international aid organizations as unclear provisions that enable arbitrary decisions. Organizations should therefore also disclose confidential information about Palestinian employees and fire employees upon request without giving reasons. The involvement of a party to the conflict in personnel verification is viewed as a violation of humanitarian principles such as neutrality and independence. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turkcalled Israel’s actions “outrageous.”

According to Israel’s ambassador to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, more than a hundred organizations have applied for registration, nine of which have been rejected. The 37 organizations that refused to register said they did not bring aid to the Gaza Strip during the ceasefire. Accordingly, their contribution is said to have previously only amounted to one percent of the total aid volume.