Israel bars Save the Children from working in Gaza

The warning comes amid reports of Palestinians facing a harsh winter, widespread malnutrition and famine, and continued air strikes under a fragile ceasefire.

Israel has barred Save the Children, a leading non-profit organisations, from carrying out relief work in Gaza after it introduced new rules that mandate international NGOs to register under its new framework, in a move that could hamper the inflow of humanitarian aid to the beseiged strip.

The Israel government said it it mandatory for NGOs to register under its new framework by December 31. “We do not wish to impede aid distribution but to prevent hostile actors or supporters of terrorism operating in the Palestinian territories,” Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism told the news agency AFP.

As of November 2025, the ministry said it has received around 100 registration requests, of which 14 have been rejected on grounds of “involvement in terrorism, antisemitism, delegitimisation of Israel, Holocaust denial, denial of the crimes of October 7.”

The most contentious requirement for the NGOs is to prove they do not work for the “delegitimisation” of Israel, which aid workers say is dangerously vague.

The NGOs barred under the new rules include Save the Children, one of the best known and oldest in Gaza, where it helps 120,000 children, and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). They are being given 60 days to withdraw all their international staff from the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and Israel, and will no longer be able to deliver any aid.

Humanitarian workers say the crisis come amid reports of Palestinians facing a harsh winter, widespread malnutrition and famine, and continued air strikes under a fragile ceasefire brokered by the US.

Stopping aid could paralyse already crippled Gaza: UN

The United Nations has strongly denounced the new registration system, calling for its immediate withdrawal, warning that it could choke the already trickling flow of aid into the beleaguered Gaza Strip.

In a sharply worded statement, the Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (HCT) warned that under the current rule, dozens of NGOs face deregistration and forced closure of their operations within weeks.

“They represent only a fraction of the response in Gaza and are nowhere near the number required just to meet immediate and basic needs. If they are pushed out, the humanitarian response will not survive,” read the statement.

According to the report, around USD 1 billion worth of assistance is delivered annually across the Strip. “Yet millions of dollars’ worth of food, medicines, hygiene supplies and shelter materials are now stuck outside Gaza, unable to reach families in need,” the statement read.

Raising an alarm, the UN stated that if NGOs are forced to leave, one in three health facilities in Gaza would close almost immediately, cutting off care for tens of thousands of patients.

“Lifesaving assistance must be allowed to reach Palestinians without further delay,” the statement concluded, urging Israel to allow aid, without which the consequences would be catastrophic.

Humanitarian workers question rule

“Under new rules, Israel is rejecting NGOs that “delegitimize” (meaning criticize) Israel. Among those barred are Save the Children, one of the best known and oldest in Gaza,” said Kenneth Roth, former Human Rights Watch executive director.

Israel’s new registration requirements for international NGOs “risk leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza without lifesaving healthcare in 2026,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned in a statement on Monday, December 22. “With Gaza’s health system already destroyed, independent and experienced humanitarian organizations losing access to respond would be a disaster for Palestinians,” the statement said.

“MSF calls on the Israeli authorities to ensure that INGOs can maintain and continue their impartial and independent response in Gaza,” it added.

Rights groups and NGOs, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

“If NGOs are considered to be harmful for passing on testimonies from populations, carrying out operational work and saying what is happening and this leads to a ban on working, then this is very problematic,” said Jean-Francois Corty, president of French NGO Medecins du Monde.

The Israeli army has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 others in attacks in Gaza since October 2023.

(With inputs from AFP)