Gaza: Alarm over Israeli move to deregister NGOs

New York [US], August 7: Aid agencies warned on Wednesday that most partner organisations providing vital relief across Gaza will likely have to shut down their operations within weeks, unless Israel withdraws its demand that they provide sensitive information about Palestinian employees.
The development, which also applies to the occupied West Bank, is a result of the Israeli requirement introduced on 9 March impacting international non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
"Unless urgent action is taken.most international NGO partners could be de-registered by 9 September or sooner - forcing them to withdraw all international staff and preventing them from providing critical, lifesaving humanitarian assistance to Palestinians," said UN and partner aid organisations that are known collectively as the Humanitarian Country Team in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
The UN understands that organisations must now submit, amongst others, details of representatives and all employees in-country, including Palestinian and foreign workers, with full identification and contact details.
For foreign worker recommendation requirements, applications must now include marital status and family details, including spouse and children's passport numbers and country of issuance.
Many UN agencies still operate in Gaza, working closely with NGO partners to reach the war-torn enclave's most vulnerable people. International NGOs are key as they provide critical support to Palestinian NGOs in the form of supplies, funding and technical support.
"Without this cooperation, their operations will be severed, cutting off even more communities from food, medical care, shelter and critical protection services," said the Humanitarian Country Team, which is overseen by the UN's top aid official in OPT and includes heads of UN agencies and more than 200 local and international NGOs.
Already, NGOs which have not registered under the new system are prohibited from sending any supplies to Gaza.
Just last month, Israeli authorities rejected repeated requests by 29 of them to ship humanitarian aid to Gaza, citing the organisations as "not authorised".
"This policy has already prevented the delivery of lifesaving aid including medicine, food, and hygiene items," the humanitarian collective said. "This most profoundly affects women, children, older people, and persons with disabilities, further aggravating the risk of being subjected to abuse and exploitation."
In a statement urging Israel to reconsider its demand for sensitive employee information from NGOs, the humanitarian country team insisted that impeding its work violates international law "when we are receiving daily reports of death by starvation as Gaza faces famine conditions".
Source: Emirates News Agency