Oxfam Australia Media Release
International humanitarian organisations operating in the occupied Palestinian territory warn that Israel’s recent registration measures threaten to halt INGO operations at a time when civilians face acute and widespread humanitarian need, despite the ceasefire in Gaza.
On 30 December, 37 INGOs received official notification that their registrations would expire on 31 December 2025. This triggers a 60-day period after which INGOs would be required to cease operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. INGOs are integral to the humanitarian response, working in partnership with the United Nations and Palestinian civil society organisations to deliver lifesaving assistance at scale. The United Nations, the Humanitarian Country Team, and donor governments have repeatedly affirmed that INGOs are indispensable to humanitarian and development operations and have urged Israel to reverse course.
Despite the ceasefire, humanitarian needs remain extreme. In Gaza, one in four families survives on just one meal a day. Winter storms have displaced tens of thousands, leaving 1.3 million people in urgent need of shelter. INGOs deliver more than half of all food assistance in Gaza, run or support 60 per cent of field hospitals, implement nearly three-quarters of shelter and non-food item activities, and provide all treatment for children with severe acute malnutrition. Their removal would close health facilities, halt food distributions, collapse shelter pipelines, and cut off life-saving care. In the West Bank, ongoing military raids and settler violence continue to drive displacement. Further restrictions on INGOs would sharply reduce the reach and continuity of lifesaving assistance at a critical moment.
Recent efforts to assess the impact of deregistering INGOs through selective metrics do not capture how humanitarian assistance is delivered in practice. Humanitarian access must be measured by whether civilians receive the right assistance, in the right place, at the right time. INGOs operate under strict donor-mandated compliance frameworks, including audits, counterterror financing controls, and due diligence requirements that meet international standards. More than 500 humanitarian workers have been killed since 7 October 2023.
INGOs cannot transfer sensitive personal data to a party to the conflict since this would breach humanitarian principles, duty of care and data protection obligations. False narratives delegitimise humanitarian organisations, endanger staff, and undermine the delivery of assistance. This is not a technical or administrative matter, but a deliberate policy choice with foreseeable consequences. If registrations are allowed to lapse, the Israeli government will obstruct humanitarian assistance at scale. Humanitarian access is not optional, conditional, or political. It is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law.
This move would also set a dangerous precedent by extending Israeli authority over humanitarian operations in the occupied Palestinian territory, contrary to the internationally recognised legal framework governing the territory and the role of the Palestinian Authority. We call on the Government of Israel to immediately halt deregistration proceedings and lift measures obstructing humanitarian assistance.
We urge donor governments to use all available leverage to secure the suspension and reversal of these actions. Independent, principled humanitarian operations must be protected to ensure civilians can receive the assistance they urgently need.
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But — but — but —
They are or may be terrorist organisations, or at least funded by terrorists.
Glad I was able to sort that one out for you.
Will Europe/Canada/Australia etc. ever stand up to these Israeli terrorists? Is there any hope that will happen? Losing hope after years of unimaginable horror with impunity. Support, even.
The fear of being labelled ‘anti-semitic’ over rules any endeavours to demonstrate a sense of humanitarianism.
Until humanity rather than being ‘God’s Chosen’ is the definition Israelis can apply to their self definition, and by extension, the pro-Zionist lobby industry, Palestinian lives will be rendered superfluous and no moral or ethical judgement will be able to end the on going crisis both in Gaza and on the West Bank.
Israel has intensified its blockade of the Gaza Strip to a “total blockade”, blocking the entry of food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity.
The land blockades are one thing but the sea and air blockades operated by Israel are, they argue, for their own self-defence and security and to avoid the smuggling of arms. The UN and aid organisations consider the sea and air blockades, which impact the entire civilian population of Gaza, are a form of collective punishment under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and are Unlawful.
Israel has never recognised the authority of the UN or international humanitarian law and will continue to do whatsoever it can get away with and with Trump being their main benefactor they will continue on the path of ethnic cleansing and genocide – no that is not an antisemitic observation!
The International Court of Justice has issued several provisional measures and an advisory opinion in October 2025 stating that Israel has a legal obligation to allow UN aid to enter Gaza unimpeded and ensure the basic needs of the population are met. The court has found Israel’s general occupation of Palestinian territories to be unlawful and its policies to be in disregard of the laws of war, though it has not definitively adjudicated on the overall legality of the blockade itself.
I sincerely hope that the actions of Netanyahu and his government do not adversely impact on the Israeli civilian population or Jewish diaspora communities around the world.
Having achieved peace in Gaza,the Madman can now concentrate on destabilising Latin America.Nothing to do with OIL.
Those folk that voted for this fuckwit should be well pleased.
Barely a new year, and the criminality grows, deepens, worsens. The festering filth of Trump goes on with greedyambitiousrighteous submissive fawning obsequious support from leechycrawlyugly fellationists, eager to “advance, rise, posture”. The USA has spawned a race of mediaevalist maggoty misfit manipulators, cheered on by media and corporation grubs. As there is more power than ever for money, weapons, technology, crookedness and perversion to operate, we face ruin. Can all others unite and rise against the clear enemy of all?