Israel imposes restrictions on humanitarian organizations in Gaza

Israeli authorities have imposed new rules on humanitarian organizations working in the Gaza Strip, effectively restricting the activities of 37 international organizations, including a number of Christian ones. Human rights activists and church representatives warn that these requirements could jeopardize the lives of Palestinian staff, which is a serious concern.

According to Christian Today, the updated guidelines require humanitarian organizations to provide Israel with detailed personal data on all their Palestinian employees. Israel attributes these measures to the need to prevent militants from infiltrating humanitarian organizations and to prevent the use of aid for terrorist purposes.

At the same time, charitable organizations say that such requirements create serious security risks. Hundreds of aid workers have been killed in recent fighting, they say, and disclosing personal data could make local staff even more vulnerable to harassment and violence.

Technically, the deadline to comply with the new rules has already passed, but full implementation has been delayed until March 1, 2026. This gives organizations about two months to decide whether to accept the requirements or stop working in Gaza. Despite the pressure, some Christian organizations have announced their intention to stay. A spokesman for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said that Caritas Jerusalem will continue its humanitarian and social ministry in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem in accordance with its mandate.

The Caritas Jerusalem statement stressed that the organization has not re-registered under the new rules, citing international legal agreements between the Holy See and the State of Israel. In particular, Caritas operates as an ecclesiastical legal entity recognized under the 1993 Basic Agreement and the 1997 Agreement on Legal Personality.

The situation again emphasizes how humanitarian aid becomes a field of conflict. During the war, Israel has been repeatedly accused of using humanitarian aid as a tool of pressure, to which the Israeli side insists that all restrictions are purely security in nature. On the other hand, Hamas is also accused of controlling the distribution of aid to influence civilians. Both sides deny these accusations, and independent reports indicate that no systemic seizure of humanitarian aid has been proven.

In addition to Caritas, other well-known Christian humanitarian organizations, notably World Vision and DanChurchAid, have also been affected by the new Israeli restrictions.

This situation presents Christian organizations with a difficult moral choice: how to stay with those who are suffering without endangering their own workers. For many churches, this is a question not only of humanitarian mission, but also of faithfulness to the Christian calling to serve their neighbors even in a war zone.

Recall, earlier we reported that the United States of America has carried out a series of heavy airstrikes on the positions of the terrorist group «Islamic State» (ISIS) in the north-west of Nigeria. The operation, ordered by US President Donald Trump, was in response to mass attacks and killings of civilians, including Christians, by the terrorists. The strikes were coordinated with the Nigerian authorities and, according to preliminary data from the US military, resulted in the elimination of several militants.