40humanitarian organizations: Israel is obstructing aid delivery to Gaza

Forty humanitarian organizations said that Israel is obstructing the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip by imposing a new registration system for international non-governmental organizations, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in aid being held outside the territory.

The Financial Times quoted the international organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, as saying that Israel rejected 99 requests to bring in aid during the first 12 days of the ceasefire, and that Israel rejected almost all of the Norwegian Refugee Council’s requests.

The newspaper reported that three-quarters of the rejections were on the grounds that the organizations were not authorized to provide aid.

The Financial Times stated that in March, Israel imposed new rules requiring organizations working with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank to re-register with Israeli authorities before the end of the year or risk losing their operating licenses.

The director of the Norwegian Refugee Council told the newspaper that the organization is now at a standstill. When it requests to bring in aid, it is told that its registration is under review and that it is not authorized to bring in any supplies.