More than 100 aid groups working in Gaza and the West Bank have signed a letter saying that Israel is “weaponizing aid,” a warning that comes as people are starving to death every day in Gaza due to the US-backed Israeli blockade.
The statement said that in July alone, 60 requests to deliver aid to Gaza were rejected by Israel over claims that the organizations, which have a history of operating in Gaza, were not authorized to deliver aid. “This obstruction has left millions of dollars’ worth of food, medicine, water, and shelter items stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt, while Palestinians are being starved.”
The letter, signed by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam, Save the Children, and several other major organizations, came in response to a new Israeli rule for international NGOs operating in the Palestinian territories that requires them to provide a list of their donors and identify their Palestinian staff.
“Unless INGOs submit to the full registration requirements—including the mandatory submission of details of private donors, complete Palestinian staff lists, and other sensitive information about personnel for so-called ‘security’ vetting to Israeli authorities—many could be forced to halt operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and remove all international staff within 60 days,” the letter states.
The aid groups noted the large number of aid workers who have been killed by the IDF in Gaza since October 7, 2023. “In the deadliest context for aid workers worldwide, where 98 percent of those humanitarians killed were Palestinian, NGOs have no guarantees that handing over such information would not put staff at further risk, or be used to advance the government of Israel’s stated military and political aims,” the letter states.
The groups said that Israel was now using the registration rule “to further block aid and deny food and medicine in the midst of the worst-case scenario of famine” in the Gaza Strip. Some aid groups said they have been unable to deliver any aid to Gaza due to Israeli restrictions.
“Since the full siege was imposed on March 2, CARE has not been able to deliver any of our $1.5 million worth of pre-positioned supplies into Gaza,” said Jolien Veldwijk, the Gaza director for the international humanitarian aid group CARE.
Oxfam said that it “has over $2.5 million worth of goods that have been rejected from entering Gaza by Israel, especially WASH and hygiene items as well as food.”
The aid groups called on states to pressure Israel to end the weaponization of aid and “demand the immediate and unconditional opening of all land crossings and conditions for the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid.”
Israel and its supporters in the US have claimed that Israel was not responsible for the hunger in Gaza, but a recent report from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz detailed how Israeli restrictions were responsible for starving Palestinians.
