Banned from the Gaza Strip with 36 aid bodies, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Saturday it will have to end its operations there in March if Israel does not reverse its decision. The United Nations has called on Israel to lift its ban on the 37 NGOs.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was "deeply concerned" at the development.
"This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians," said Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric in a statement.
Israel confirmed on Thursday it is suspending the licences of 37 international humanitarian organisations operating in the Gaza Strip. It accuses them of failing to provide the list of their employees' names, which is now officially required for "security" reasons.
MSF called this demand a "scandalous intrusion" but Israel says is needed to stop jihadists from infiltrating into humanitarian structures.
"To work in Palestine, in the occupied Palestinian territories, we have to be registered ... That registration expired on 31 December, 2025," Isabelle Defourny, a physician and president of MSF France, told France Inter public radio.
"Since July 2025, we have been involved in a re-registration process and to date, we have not received a response. We still have 60 days during which we could work without being re-registered, and so we would have to end our activities in March" if Israel maintains its decision, she said.
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'Witness' to violence
MSF has around 40 international staff in the Gaza Strip and works with 800 Palestinian staff across eight hospitals.
"We are the second-largest distributor of water (in the Gaza Strip). Last year, in 2025, we treated just over 100,000 people who were wounded, burned, or victims of various traumas. We are second in terms of the number of deliveries performed," the president of MSF France said.
According to her, the Israeli decision is explained by the fact that NGOs "bear witness to the violence committed by the Israeli army" in Gaza.
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A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas's unprecedented 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data.
About 1.5 million of Gaza's more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
(with AFP)
