More than a dozen international humanitarian groups have urged Israel’s Supreme Court to halt an expected order that would shut down 37 NGOs operating in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, warning the move would have devastating consequences for Palestinians.
If they fail to do so, they will have to cease operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, from March 1.
The petition, described as unprecedented in its scale, seeks an urgent interim injunction from Israel’s top court to suspend the closures pending full judicial review.
The 17 petitioners, which include some of the NGOs hit by the ban, argue the Israeli measures are incompatible with an occupying power’s obligations under international humanitarian law.
The NGOs say compliance would expose local employees to potential retaliation, undermine the principle of humanitarian neutrality and violate European data protection law.
“Turning humanitarian organisations into an information-gathering arm for a party to the conflict stands in total contradiction to the principle of neutrality,” the petition states.
According to the United Nations, 133 NGO workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war started on Oct. 7, 2023, including 15 MSF employees.
The petitioners say they have proposed practical alternatives to handing over staff lists to Israel, including “independent sanctions screening” and “donor-audited vetting systems.”
The organizations say that they collectively support or implement more than half of all food assistance in Gaza, 60% of field hospital operations and all inpatient treatment for children suffering severe acute malnutrition.
Audrey Rayburn, director of AIDA, an umbrella organization of international NGOs working in Palestinian territories, told reporters Tuesday that NGO presence in Gaza, where foreign media is not allowed, also allows outsiders to witness the war.
The petitioners say enforcement has already begun in practice, with supplies blocked and visas denied to foreign staff.
“We haven’t been able to get international staff inside Gaza since the beginning of January. Israeli authorities denied any entry to Gaza, but also to the West Bank,” MSF head of mission in the Palestinian territories Filipe Ribeiro told AFP last week.
“For the time being, we are still working in Gaza, and we plan to keep running our operations as long as we can,” he added.
The ban comes as Israel hardens its stance toward humanitarian actors in general, having banned the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from Israel in early 2025.
UNRWA can no longer coordinate with Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank, as will be the case for the banned, or deregistered, NGOs.
For international NGOs, the current ban goes back to a change in rules for foreign organisations working with Palestinians in March 2025.
The law updated the framework for how aid groups must register to maintain their status within Israel, along with provisions that outline how their applications can be denied or registration revoked.
The absence of coordination with Israel complicates operations by denying entry to Israel, the West Bank or Gaza to foreign aid workers or by denying direct contact to plan around Israeli military operations in the Palestinian territory.
“We are arguing that Israel acted here without any authority, because according to the Oslo Accords, the whole registration of organisations issue was handled by the Palestinian Authority,” Yotam Ben-Hillel, an Israeli attorney who filed the appeal for the international organizations, told reporters.
The NGOs argued in their petition that Israel, as an occupying power in the West Bank and parts of Gaza, “must facilitate relief for civilians under its control” under the Geneva Convention.
“This is a new era in how Israel deals with international nonprofits,” Ben-Hillel said.
He reminded that under the 2025 rules, foreign NGOs can also lose their registration if Israel deems it has “delegitimised Israel” by reporting on the West Bank or Gaza, a rule he called “vague and subjective.”
He said the Israeli state had until Wednesday 1200 GMT to provide the court with an answer.
