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Amid Forced Starvation in Gaza, NGO Coalition Decries Israel's New Registration Rules
"Under international humanitarian law, occupying powers are obligated to facilitate impartial humanitarian assistance and ensure the welfare of the protected population."
May 06, 2025
A coalition of 55 international humanitarian groups operating in Palestine on Tuesday denounced Israel's new rules for registering foreign-based nongovernmental organizations, a move that came amid the Israeli government's forced starvation and "complete siege" of Palestinians deprived of lifesaving aid in the embattled Gaza Strip.
In March, a new law on the registration and visa issuance process for international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) took effect. Israeli and international critics condemned the new rules—which dozens of European lawmakers called "purposely vague" and "highly discretionary"—as aimed at barring INGOs from helping Palestinians, who are suffering from a genocidal invasion and siege in Gaza and decades of illegal occupation, apartheid, and colonization in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.
"Under the new provisions, INGOs already registered in Israel may face de-registration, while new applicants risk rejection based on arbitrary, politicized allegations, such as 'delegitimising Israel' or expressing support for accountability for Israeli violations of international law," the 55 groups said in an open letter.
"Other disqualifiers include public support for a boycott of Israel within the past seven years (by staff, a partner, board member, or founder) or failure to meet exhaustive reporting requirements," the letter states. "By framing humanitarian and human rights advocacy as a threat to the state, Israeli authorities can shut out organizations merely for speaking out about conditions they witness on the ground, forcing INGOs to choose between delivering aid and promoting respect for the protections owed to affected people."
"INGOs are further required to submit complete staff lists and other sensitive information about staff and their families to Israel when applying for registration," the signers noted. "In a context where humanitarian and healthcare workers are routinely subject to harassment, detention, and direct attacks, this raises serious protection concerns."
"These new rules are part of a broader, long-term crackdown on humanitarian and civic space, marked by heightened surveillance and attacks, and a series of actions that restrict humanitarian access, compromise staff safety, and undermine core principles of humanitarian action," the letter adds.
In addition to blocking or delaying aid shipments to Gaza under a siege and targeted starvation policy that United Nations experts have repeatedly called genocidal, Israeli forces have killed, wounded, kidnapped, tortured, and otherwise abused at least hundreds of aid workers; banned the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees; falsely accused humanitarian workers of being terrorists; obliterated Gaza's healthcare infrastructure; and much more.
Israel has also suspended the visas of foreign humanitarian officials and suspended the work permits for Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank. Meanwhile, Israeli lawmakers are debating legislation that would impose a tax of up to 80% on foreign government funding to INGOs and bar them from seeking legal redress.
In the United States, the administration of President Donald Trump has eliminated or dramatically reduced humanitarian funding, including via the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). This has forced numerous aid agencies to cut back or halt operations in Palestine.
"Under international humanitarian law, occupying powers are obligated to facilitate impartial humanitarian assistance and ensure the welfare of the protected population," the 55 INGOs said in their letter. "Any attempt to condition humanitarian access on political alignment or penalize organizations for fulfilling their mandate risks breaching this framework."
"The International Court of Justice ordered Israel to allow unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza in three legally binding provisional measures orders in 2024," the letter adds. Israel has been accused of ignoring the orders by the ICJ, which is currently weighing a genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are also fugitives from the International Criminal Court, which last year issued arrest warrants for the pair for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the 19-month assault on Gaza that has left more than 185,000 Palestinians dead, injured, or missing and most of the coastal enclave's population forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.
In a Tuesday interview with Al Jazeera, Bushra Khalidi, policy lead at the Jerusalem branch of Oxfam—one of the 55 groups that signed the letter—said that "Gaza is in the worst possible phase" since the beginning of Israel's onslaught, as mass starvation worsens amid a tightened blockade and pledges by Israeli leaders to conquer and ethnically cleanse the coastal enclave.
"We've not been able to operate, basically, since the second of March," she added. "Our food distribution has completely halted. We have nothing in the warehouses... Catastrophic doesn't even describe the situation in Gaza. It's hell."
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Global Inaction Decried as Sudan Suffers World's 'Largest Humanitarian Crisis'
"Amid the rising tide of hate speech and ethnically driven violence and reprisals, we fear the darkest chapters of this conflict have yet to unfold," said the head of one U.N. mission.
Apr 15, 2025
Human rights groups on Tuesday marked two years of civil war in Sudan by decrying "international neglect" and urging the international community do more to end the conflict, while one United Nations official warned that the worst of the conflict may be still to come.
"The world has witnessed two years of ruthless conflict which has trapped millions of civilians in harrowing situations, subjecting them to violations and suffering with no end in sight," said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the U.N.'s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, on Monday. "Amid the rising tide of hate speech and ethnically driven violence and reprisals, we fear the darkest chapters of this conflict have yet to unfold."
Sudan has been racked by violence since fighting erupted between the between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)—the nation's official military—and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023. The civil war has also led to famine in certain areas of the country and mass displacement.
The head of the U.N. Children's Fund warned that Sudan is experiencing the world's largest and most devastating humanitarian crisis, according to a statement from last month.
"Sudan is now worse off than ever before," Elise Nalbandian, a regional advocacy and communications manager for Oxfam International, toldThe Guardian. "The largest humanitarian crisis, largest displacement crisis, largest hunger crisis... It's breaking all sorts of wrong records."
The two year mark of the start of the civil war comes on the heels of a wave of attacks in displacement camps and around the city of El Fasher carried out by paramilitary forces, according to The Guardian. Nine workers with Relief International were killed as part of the attacks.
"Today is a day of shame. Shame on the perpetrators on both sides of this terrible conflict who have inflicted unimaginable suffering on civilians. Shame on the world for turning away while Sudan burns. Shame on the countries that continue to add fuel to the fire," said Amnesty International's senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns Erika Guevara Rosas in a statement on Tuesday.
According to Rosas, both the Sudan Armed Forces, Rapid Support Forces, and their allies have committed atrocities, such as sexual violence against women and girls and tortute, that amount to war crimes. "Despite these atrocities, the world has largely chosen to remain passive. Alarmingly, the U.N. Security Council has failed to implement a comprehensive arms embargo on Sudan to halt the constant flow of weapons fueling these heinous crimes," she said.
In an opinion piece published Tuesday, two directors at Human Rights Watch highlighted both the anniversary of the crisis and a conference focused on Sudan that was held Tuesday and hosted by the United Kingdom with the African Union, the European Union, France, and Germany, per Reuters.
"As the U.K. convenes an international gathering on Sudan today, the stakes couldn't be higher for civilians there," the two wrote. "It is essential for the conference to deliver concrete actions designed to stop unfolding atrocities in Darfur and rally high-level support for protecting civilians."
The U.K. must use the conference to "rally global action to prevent more atrocities, starting with the creation of a coalition of states willing to work urgently to protect civilians. It also needs to move ahead with sanctions against commanders," they added.
According to Reuters, the European Union and the U.K. pledged at the conference to increase aid to Sudan.
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'Child After Child': Israel Has Killed 270+ Gaza Children Since Ditching Cease-Fire Last Week, Says NGO
"Children and families in Gaza have barely caught their breath and are now being plunged back into a horrifically familiar world of harm that they cannot escape," said Save the Children's regional director.
Mar 25, 2025
Since fully abandoning a two-month cease-fire in the Gaza Strip a week ago, the Israel Defense Forces have slaughtered more than 270 children in the Palestinian enclave, the global charity Save the Children said on social media Tuesday.
"Bombs falling, hospitals destroyed, children killed, and the world is silent. No aid, no safety, no future," said Save the Children humanitarian director Rachael Cummings. The group also noted that the death toll since October 2023 has topped 50,000.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday that since March 18, the IDF has killed at least 792 people and injured 1,663, bringing the totals over the past 18 months to 50,144 dead and 113,704 wounded. Thousands more are missing and presumed dead.
On Monday, Drop Site News' Sharif Kouddous reported that the ministry "released a 1,516-page document listing the names of over 50,000 Palestinians confirmed killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. There are a total of 474 pages listing 15,600+ children's names. The first 27 pages the age is listed as 0—children under 1 year old."
In addition to the 876 infants under age 1, Drop Sitedetailed on social media, the IDF has killed at least 1,686 toddlers (1-2 years), 2,424 preschoolers (3-5 years), 5,745 elementary school students (6-12 years), 2,837 young teens (13-15 years), and 2,045 older teens (16-17 years).
The outlet noted that "this toll does not include deaths from indirect causes such as starvation, disease, or the thousands still missing under the rubble. Researchers have said the actual toll could be three to five times higher."
The Associated Pressreported Tuesday that "when the first explosions in Gaza this week started around 1:30 am, a visiting British doctor went to the balcony of a hospital in Khan Younis and watched the streaks of missiles light up the night before pounding the city."
Dr. Sakib Rokadiya then headed to Nasser Hospital's emergency ward, which soon filled with people harmed by the strikes. "Just child after child, young patient after young patient," he said. "The vast, vast majority were women, children, the elderly."
The AP shared more accounts from healthcare providers at the largest hospital in southern Gaza, including Dr. Feroze Sidhwa:
Sidhwa, an American trauma surgeon from California with the medical charity MedGlobal, rushed immediately to the area where the hospital put the worst-off patients still deemed possible to save.
But the very first little girl he saw—3 or 4 years old—was too far gone. Her face was mangled by shrapnel. "She was technically still alive," Sidhwa said, but with so many other casualties "there was nothing we could do."
He told the girl's father she was going to die. Sidhwa went on to do some 15 operations, one after another.
When Israel fully ditched the cease-fire last week, after many violations since mid-January, Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children's regional director, said that "children and families in Gaza have barely caught their breath and are now being plunged back into a horrifically familiar world of harm that they cannot escape."
"These airstrikes come as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians remain displaced, their homes destroyed and uninhabitable, with tents all that stand between them and explosive weapons designed for wide reach," he pointed out. "Children are the most vulnerable to explosive weapons. Their lighter bodies are thrown further by the blasts, and their bones are softer and bend more easily, with higher risk of secondary injuries and long-term deformities and disabilities. Their small bodies have less blood to lose—a death sentence when emergency services can't safely operate and reach them."
"Children who survive the onslaught will not be able to receive adequate medical care or even basic pain medication, following the government of Israel's restrictions on and denial of medical supplies and the fuel hospitals need to function," Alhendawi continued. "This cannot be what world powers allow children to return to. When children are slaughtered en masse, humanity's moral and legal foundations crumble. We have seen it for ourselves: The only way to ensure children and families are protected as international law requires is through a cease-fire. This time, it must be definitive—the constant threat of war cannot be left hanging over their heads."
He added that "until then, even wars have laws, and those laws are clear. Civilians must be actively protected, with concrete steps taken to avoid and minimize civilian casualties. There is no military imperative that can justify atrocity crimes. And the international community must use all available means—exhaustively, not selectively—to ensure international law is upheld. Anything less is a global failure—not a mistake, not a regrettable dilemma, but a total dereliction of legal duty. Failure to act now risks the annihilation of children and their futures."
Global demands for a renewed cease-fire have mounted over the past week as Israel has returned to a full-blown military assault, backed by a U.S. government now controlled by President Donald Trump and Republican majorities in Congress.
"During the 42-day cease-fire families in Gaza could finally fall asleep knowing their loved ones would still be beside them when they woke up," Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam's policy lead for the occupied Palestinian territories, said Monday. "Even though aid that entered was not enough—far from enough—it was something. The price of food stabilized. Supermarkets reopened. Bakeries began running again. Many people even went to their homes or what was left of it, and tried to repair and rebuild, however little they could."
Khalidi explained that "Oxfam, through its partners has been able to initiate emergency water trucking across the Gaza Strip, and are maintaining some other aid programs, such as multipurpose cash transfers, despite the severe challenges that all humanitarian workers now face around lack of protection."
"For the past 535 days, Israel has been systematically weaponizing lifesaving aid, inflicting collective punishment upon the population of Gaza," she continued. "The denial of food, water, fuel and electricity is a war crime and a crime against humanity. Many within the international community are enabling this by their silence, inaction, and complicity."
Oxfam called for a permanent cease-fire, the safe return of Israeli hostages and illegally detained Palestinian prisoners, "unfettered aid at scale," and other governments to stop transferring arms to the involved parties. The group also said that "we reiterate our call for justice and accountability for all those affected."
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court in November issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader who has since been confirmed dead.
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