Tag: Doctors Without Borders

On 30 December 2025, Israel announced its intention to prevent 37 international humanitarian and aid organisations, (including amongst others, ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, Médecins Sans Frontières and Norwegian Refugee Council) from operating in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT). The announcement follows Israel’s introduction, in March 2025, of additional registration requirements, whose aim is to consolidate its genocidal conduct in Gaza –– of which denial of access to humanitarian aid remains a central element ­­–– to further fragment and isolate the Palestinian people from international support.

Responding to the introduction of the requirements, in May 2025 a coalition of 55 international organisations warned that: ‘Based on vague, broad, politicised, and open-ended criteria, these rules appear designed to assert control over independent humanitarian, development and peacebuilding operations, silence advocacy grounded in international humanitarian and human rights law, and further entrench Israeli control and de facto annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory.’

The International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) 2024 Palestine Advisory Opinion observed that ‘a key element of the right to self-determination is the right of a people freely to determine its political status and to pursue its economic, social and cultural development’…

… In Gaza, Israel’s genocidal conduct has included the denial of humanitarian aid, the destruction of agricultural land, and the targeting of health care workers and humanitarian staff. Israel’s presence in the OPT remains unlawful, as was determined by the ICJ in 2024, and must be brought to an end. Al-Haq reiterates that entry into Palestine, and the presence in Palestine of external actors, including private individuals, consular representatives, UN agencies, and humanitarian organisations, is contingent on the consent  of the Palestinian people and their representatives, and is in no way an Israeli prerogative.