Israel deliberately obstructs aid into Gaza through re-registration rules, humanitarian groups warn

Aid groups say extra layer of vetting is political hindrance to providing urgent assistance

A Palestinian girl with relief packages after aid lorries entered Gaza through the Karam Abu Salem crossing, in Khan Younis. AFP

Israel's requirement for international humanitarian organisations to re-register with its Ministry of Diaspora and Combating Anti-Semitism is adding another bureaucratic obstacle to increasing assistance to Gaza, aid groups have told The National.

Under the ceasefire agreement that went into effect on October 10, Israel must allow at least 600 lorries of aid into Gaza per day. However, data from Cogat, the Israeli military body overseeing the occupied Palestinian territories, shows that only 1,899 lorries entered in October – an average of about 61 lorries per day.

The UN said on Thursday that since the ceasefire began, Israel had rejected 107 requests from more than 30 local and international non-governmental organisations for the entry of relief items such as blankets, winter clothes and hygiene kits.

“More than half of the requests were denied on the grounds that the organisations were not authorised to bring relief items into Gaza,” Deputy UN Spokesperson Farhan Haq said.

The UN declared a famine in Gaza city in August and warned that it would spread to other areas of the Strip without adequate food supplies and medical resources to detect and combat cases of malnutrition.

“The 600 truck per day figure is what is needed at a minimum to make sure people don't die, when in reality they need 1,000 per day if we're talking about recovery,” a humanitarian official told The National.

But the requirement for organisations that have been operating in the Palestinian Territories for years to re-register has given Israel an additional pretext to deny the entry of aid into Gaza, humanitarian groups said.

After international pressure about the complicated process, Israel extended the registration deadline from September 8 to December 31, another humanitarian source told The National.

A major issue with the process is that it requires international NGOs to provide a full list of Palestinian and foreign staff “involved in the management and implementation” of their work, including their names, passport numbers and identification numbers, according to the Israeli ministry's website.

A displaced Palestinian woman cooks on a fire by her tent in Gaza City. Reuters

“There's a level of control they [Israel] have not exhibited before in terms of vetting staff,” the source said.

While foreign staff in any case need to apply for visas, NGO teams also include Palestinians who, in most cases, outnumber the foreign workers, the source added. “So by declaring them to the Ministry of Diaspora, previously unknown people are now being registered with Israeli authorities.”

Providing their staff's personal information would also breach European data privacy laws that apply to many NGOs operating in Gaza.

“So there are ethical considerations about where that data goes. It's not clear whether it will stop with just asking for those staff names – maybe in the future, they'll have input on who to hire,” the source added.

The Ministry of Diaspora's requirements for registration appear vague and subject to interpretation. Grounds for rejection include having staff who participated in terrorist activities or incitement against Israel, but also any office holder, partner, board member or founder who has “called for a boycott of the State of Israel” in the previous seven years.

Israel has passed laws banning its officials from communicating with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), and has prohibited the agency from bringing aid into Gaza or operating in the West Bank. With 12,000 staff, UNRWA has the largest humanitarian workforce in Gaza and is relied upon by many NGOs for its vast network and warehouses.

Israel banned UNRWA after accusing several of its employees, without providing evidence, of participating in the deadly Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed nearly 1,200 people and triggered the Gaza war.

In October, President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Yuji Iwasawa said Israel had not substantiated its claims against UNRWA, and that it was required to allow UN agencies, including UNRWA, to provide aid relief.

With many well-established UN agencies and NGOs waiting for re-registration approval to be able to deliver aid to Gaza, the number of organisations able fill those gaps is likely to dwindle.

“Given the scale of this disaster, there cannot be one or two organisations responding – nobody has this kind of capacity,” Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president of policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps, told The National.

“This is not a logistical problem, but a political one. We need to be dismantling any and all barriers to getting humanitarian assistance in – we are in a race against time to get ready for what will be an unforgiving winter.”