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Israel's Supreme Court issued a temporary order on Friday freezing a government ban on 37 foreign NGOs working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, offering a provisional reprieve to aid organizations that had been facing a March 1 deadline to cease operations.
The ruling, which responded to a petition from more than a dozen of the affected organizations, allows the NGOs to theoretically continue their work in the Palestinian territories until the court reaches a final decision, though aid groups said significant uncertainty remains about how the freeze will be applied on the ground.
"Without taking any position, a temporary interim order is hereby issued," the court stated, acknowledging that a "genuine legal dispute" exists due to the foreign NGOs' obligations to protect their employees' privacy under European law.
The crisis traces back to a protracted dispute between the Israeli government and the foreign aid organizations. The NGOs, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE, were notified on December 30, 2025 that their Israeli registrations had expired and were given 60 days to renew them by submitting lists of their Palestinian staff to Israeli authorities.
The organizations had refused to hand over those lists throughout a year-long battle, citing concerns over employee safety and privacy protections under European law. Failure to comply by the deadline would have forced them to shut down operations across Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem from March 1.
The NGOs petitioned the Supreme Court through their umbrella organization, AIDA, after their charity registrations were formally revoked.
While the injunction was broadly welcomed, aid workers and legal representatives cautioned that its practical impact remains uncertain. Athena Rayburn, AIDA's director, called the ruling "a step in the right direction" but said the coalition was "still waiting to see how the injunction will be interpreted by the state and whether or not this will mean an increase in our ability to operate."
Yotam Ben-Hillel, the lawyer who represented the NGOs in court, said the ruling had given "the residents of Gaza and the West Bank some breathing room," though he acknowledged that "we still don't know how it will play out."
The ruling's limitations were starkly illustrated by the situation facing MSF in Gaza. Craig Kenzie, an MSF project coordinator, told AFP that the organization's 28 foreign staff left the Palestinian territory on Thursday and would not be able to return unless the ban was fully reversed.
Kenzie described the order as "a positive step" but said it was "very light on the details, so it's not clear what that results in in terms of getting supplies and foreign staff inside." No supplies have been allowed into Gaza for MSF since the end of 2025, he said, and as far as he was aware, no other deregistered NGO had managed to bring in supplies in recent months either.
He added that 1,200 Palestinian staff members would continue managing day-to-day operations, including clean water provision, surgeries and maternity health services. While some commercial cargo has entered Gaza, Kenzie noted that the goods are unaffordable for many Gazans left destitute by the war.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and strictly controls all entries to and exits from Gaza.
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