UN Chief Urges Israel to Lift Ban on Aid Agencies Operating in Gaza

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday urged Israel to reverse its decision to bar humanitarian organisations from operating in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” by the move and warning it would worsen an already dire humanitarian situation.

In a statement, Guterres’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the UN chief “calls for this measure to be reversed,” stressing that international non-governmental organisations are vital to life-saving humanitarian work. He cautioned that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress achieved during the ceasefire. “This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” Dujarric added.

Israel on Thursday suspended the operations of 37 foreign humanitarian organisations in Gaza after they refused to provide government officials with lists of their Palestinian employees. The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), which employs around 1,200 staff in the Palestinian territories, the majority of them in Gaza. Affected NGOs have been ordered to cease operations by March 1.

Several organisations have criticised the requirements, saying they violate international humanitarian law and threaten their independence. Israel, however, maintains that the new regulations are intended to prevent groups it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.

Eighteen Israel-based left-wing NGOs also condemned the decision, saying the new registration framework “violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following Israel’s military campaign in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. Gaza authorities said in November that more than 70,000 people had been killed since the war began. UN data shows nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, while around 1.5 million of the enclave’s more than two million residents have been displaced, according to Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.