GAZA: International charity Doctors Without Borders said on Friday that Israel’s decision to revoke its operational status in Gaza for refusing to provide lists of Palestinian staff constituted a “grave blow to humanitarian assistance.”
Israel has deregistered 37 international non-governmental organisations, including Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF), as part of what critics say is a broader campaign to delegitimise organisations assisting Palestinians, including United Nations agencies.
Israel has accused some aid groups of failing to comply with its vetting procedures. However, many organisations have rejected the allegations as arbitrary and unsubstantiated.
More than two years of conflict, displacement, and destruction have stripped away hopes of reconstruction and prosperity.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which employs around 1,200 staff in the Palestinian territories—most of them based in Gaza—said in a statement that “denying medical assistance to civilians is unacceptable under any circumstances.”
The medical organisation said it has “legitimate concerns” regarding new Israeli requirements for the registration of foreign NGOs, particularly the demand to disclose personal information about Palestinian staff members.
MSF noted that 15 of its staff have been killed by Israeli forces and stressed that access to any territory should not be made conditional on the disclosure of staff lists.
“Demanding staff lists as a condition for access to territory is an outrageous overreach,” the charity said.
MSF also denounced “the absence of any clarity about how such sensitive data will be used, stored, or shared,” charging that Israeli forces “have killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of civilians” in Gaza during the course of the war.
It also charged that Israel had “manufactured shortages of basic necessities by blocking and delaying the entry of essential goods, including medical supplies.”
“Israeli forces have killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of civilians, deliberately destroying essential infrastructure and targeting medical staff, humanitarians, and journalists,” it said.
MSF currently supports one in five hospital beds in Gaza and assists one in three mothers during childbirth. While this support falls far short of meeting the overwhelming needs of Palestinians, its removal would carry devastating consequences.
It said blocking MSF and dozens of other organisations from providing services—particularly after Israeli forces have devastated Gaza’s health system—represents a further escalation of the actions taken against Palestinians over the past two years.
