DaysofPal- The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has warned of a grave escalation by Israeli occupation authorities in the Gaza Strip, marked by the launch of 2026 with the imposition of a collective ban on the operations of leading international humanitarian organizations working in the territory.
In press statements issued on Thursday, the Monitor said the Israeli decision to revoke the licenses of several international organizations operating in Gaza and the West Bank represents a direct strangulation of humanitarian response efforts. It cuts off life-saving aid pathways through a licensing system that clearly contradicts the provisions of international law.
The organization explained that the decision specifically targets international humanitarian agencies that constitute the backbone of relief efforts in Gaza, particularly amid the systematic undermining of the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The Monitor highlights that this move accelerates the collapse of what remains of Gaza’s health and relief systems and deepens the dimensions of the crime of genocide by deliberately creating living conditions aimed at destroying the population and pushing them toward forced displacement.
It warned that banning humanitarian organizations would effectively result in the loss of critical medical capacities, potentially leading to the closure of one in every three health facilities. It noted that all five centers treating severe acute malnutrition rely entirely on the support of these organizations.
It further stressed that the ongoing effort to empty Gaza of its already limited international presence is being carried out under a bureaucratic pretext, designed to tighten the isolation of the population and strip them of any external presence capable of providing humanitarian assistance or independent oversight.
According to the Euro-Mediterranean Monitor, these measures are fundamentally intended to deprive Palestinians of their last means of resilience and survival by paralyzing humanitarian organizations, obstructing relief channels, and denying access to life-saving assistance.
The Monitor clarified that the new conditions imposed by Israel for registering international organizations go far beyond administrative or technical requirements. Instead, they are built on a system of conditionalities used as tools for acceptance or exclusion, including punitive criteria.
It added that Israeli claims about the existence of “humanitarian alternatives” amount to deliberate misinformation, given the absence of any local or international entity with the logistical capacity or infrastructure needed to fill the resulting gap, especially amid the increasing restrictions imposed by the occupation authorities on humanitarian work.
The Monitor also emphasized that the decision directly violates the binding provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice on March 28, 2024, which obligated Israel to take immediate and effective steps to ensure the provision of basic services to the civilian population.
In conclusion, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called on the international community to move beyond statements of concern and condemnation and to adopt concrete, binding enforcement measures to put an end to the ongoing grave violations in the Gaza Strip and to affirm the illegality of the Israeli decision.
Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=70919
