The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns Israel’s unlawful and arbitrary decision to suspend the licenses of 37 international humanitarian and aid organisations and ban them from operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). This decision is not administrative, nor security based as claimed by the Israeli occupation authorities. Rather, it is a deliberate and calculated act aimed at further worsening the conditions necessary for the survival of the Palestinian people on their land and forms an integral part of Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
By targeting internationally respected humanitarian organisations, Israel’s settler-colonial regime is deliberately dismantling major lifelines sustaining the Palestinian civilian population. These organisations provide essential medical care, food assistance, shelter, water and sanitation services, child protection, and support for persons with disabilities. Their forced suspension will have immediate and devastating consequences for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, especially in Gaza, where more than two million people continue to be subjected to genocidal living conditions, despite the “ceasefire agreement”.
More than two years of relentless attacks and destruction of civilian infrastructure, including houses, schools, universities, hospitals, and farms, has turned Gaza into a place unfit for human survival. Depriving patients, children, women, persons with disabilities, and other sectors of the population from the essential services provided by these organisations at such a critical timing is further evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent to worsen the already-catastrophic humanitarian conditions and compound Palestinians’ suffering.
PCHR notes that facilitating humanitarian assistance is not a discretionary concession, but a binding legal obligation on Israel, as an occupying power, under international humanitarian law.
In 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has explicitly affirmed that Israel has a legal duty to allow and facilitate humanitarian assistance into Gaza. In its three provisional measures in South Africa v. Israel, the Court has ordered Israel under the Genocide Convention to take all necessary measures without delay and in full cooperation with the United Nations to ensure the unhindered provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in Gaza, including food, water, fuel, medical supplies, and shelter. The Court has also ordered Israel to increase the capacity and number of land crossings points to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, including Rafah Crossings. Israel’s decision to ban humanitarian organisations constitutes a flagrant violation of these legally binding orders issued by the world’s highest judicial authority.
In light of this dangerous development, PCHR calls on :
