Over 100 NGOs call on Israel to stop weaponization of aid in Gaza

More than 100 international organizations, including Oxfam (Oxford Committee for Famine Relief) and MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders), have signed a joint letter calling on Israel to halt what they describe as the "weaponization of aid" into Gaza, as starvation deepens.

The groups said they are increasingly being told they are "not authorized" to deliver humanitarian assistance unless they comply with stricter Israeli regulations.

Turkish Red Crescent aid truck loaded with pallets of humanitarian supplies arrives at the Rafah Border Crossing as part of a 165-truck convoy carrying approximately 3,000 tons of food aid for famine-stricken Gazans at Rafah Border, Egypt on Aug. 4, 2025. (AA Photo)

There is no access to Gaza for aid

Despite Israeli authorities claiming there is no limit on humanitarian aid entering Gaza, most major international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been unable to deliver a single truck of lifesaving supplies since March 2.

Requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in food, medicine, water, and shelter materials were rejected in July alone, citing the organizations were “not authorized to deliver aid.”

“Anera (American Near East Refugee Aid) has over $7 million worth of lifesaving supplies ready to enter Gaza—including 744 tons of rice, enough for six million meals, blocked in Ashdod just kilometers away,” said Sean Carroll, president and CEO of Anera.

2-year-old Palestinian Yezen Abu Ful, whose health has deteriorated due to lack of access to food and nutritional supplements, is seen with his mother in the Al-Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza Strip, July 24, 2025. (AA Photo)

Civilians suffer from malnutrition and hunger

The obstruction has left hospitals without basic supplies, and many children, older people, and individuals with disabilities are dying from hunger and preventable illnesses. NGOs report that aid workers themselves are going to work hungry.

Many of the excluded NGOs have decades of experience in Gaza and are trusted by local communities. Their exclusion stems from new International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) registration rules introduced in March. Under these rules, registration can be denied based on vague and politicized criteria, such as alleged “delegitimization” of the state of Israel.

Israeli soldiers gesture during a raid at the Balata refugee camp east of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, Palestine, August 11, 2025. (AFP Photo)

Registration and privacy concerns

NGOs warned the registration process was designed to control independent organizations, silence advocacy, and censor humanitarian reporting. Compliance requires sharing sensitive details, including private donors and full Palestinian staff lists, for so-called "security" vetting.

Some organizations received ultimatums as short as seven days to provide these lists.

NGOs insist that sharing such information is unlawful under international and local data protection regulations, including the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), unsafe, and contrary to humanitarian principles.

A Palestinian man carries a parcel as he walks with others amid the smoke from an Israeli strike, along the Salah al-Din road near the Nusseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, used by food-seeking Palestinians to reach an aid distributution point set up by the privately-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), June 25, 2025. (AFP Photo)

Militarized aid distribution

Restrictions are part of a broader strategy, including the so-called GHF (Gaza Humanitarian Fund) scheme, described as a militarized distribution mechanism.

MSF’s emergency coordinator in Gaza, Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, said, "The militarized food distribution scheme has weaponized starvation and curated suffering. Distributions at GHF sites have resulted in extreme levels of violence and killings, primarily of young Palestinian men, but also women and children."

Both the GHF scheme and the INGO registration process aim to block impartial aid, exclude Palestinian actors, and replace trusted humanitarian organizations with mechanisms serving political and military objectives.

Palestinians struggling with severe food shortages amid ongoing Israeli attacks and blockade gather near the Zikim Crossing to receive limited aid supplies in northwestern Gaza, August 08, 2025. (AA Photo)

Calls for action

"The answer, to save lives, save humanity and save yourselves from complicity in engineered mass starvation, is to open all the borders, at all hours, to the thousands of trucks, millions of meals and medical supplies, ready and waiting nearby," Sean Carroll of Anera said.

The organizations are calling on all states and donors to:

• Press Israel to end the weaponization of aid, including through bureaucratic obstruction like the INGO registration procedures.
• Insist that NGOs are not forced to share sensitive personal information, violating GDPR, or compromise staff safety or independence.
• Demand the immediate and unconditional opening of all land crossings for the delivery of lifesaving humanitarian aid.

The occupied Palestinian territory is the deadliest setting for aid workers worldwide, with Palestinian staff accounting for 98% of aid worker fatalities between 2023 and 2025, according to the Aid Worker Security Database.

In May, 55 organizations warned that Israel’s new INGO registration measures threatened humanitarian operations and international law.

In July, over 200 organizations called for the end of the GHF scheme and the lifting of the Israeli blockade on aid.

Signatories

August 14, 2025 02:11 PM GMT+03:00