Committee warns that Israeli restrictions on NGOs risk criminalizing humanitarian relief and worsening civilian suffering
RAMALLAH/ISTANBUL
A Palestinian church committee has called on all churches worldwide to urgently intervene to protect humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip, warning that recent Israeli restrictions threaten the core of humanitarian and church missions.
The appeal followed the Israeli government’s decision to cancel the registrations of dozens of international organizations and to require them to end their activities by March, citing their refusal to submit employee lists and to comply with new security registration procedures.
Ramzi Khoury, who heads the Palestinian Presidential Higher Committee for Church Affairs, called the Israeli move a “highly dangerous development.”
“It touches the core of human values and the Church’s mission, and reflects a systematic targeting of international non-governmental organizations operating in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem,” he said in a message to churches worldwide, as cited by the official news agency Wafa.
“What is happening today in Gaza is no longer merely a restriction on humanitarian work, but a systematic attempt to criminalize relief itself and paralyze the institutions that make the bare minimum of life possible in the face of siege, war and total collapse.”
Khoury said silence to the Israeli restrictions “cannot be understood as neutrality.”
“It is interpreted as moral abandonment. Preventing humanitarian work and criminalizing relief, at a time of a documented need for hundreds of aid trucks daily, constitutes a grave violation of international humanitarian law and a stark contradiction of Christian teachings that place the human being and human dignity at the heart of the mission.”
He appealed to churches worldwide “to declare a clear ecclesiastical position rejecting the targeting and banning of international nongovernmental organizations, to exert moral and international pressure to open crossings and ensure the entry of aid in quantities required on humanitarian grounds, and to stand with Gaza, not with words alone, but with positions that translate faith into action.”
Palestinian and international groups have warned that revoking the licenses will worsen civilian suffering in Gaza, where Israel has been waging a brutal war since October 2023.
The Israeli army has killed more than 71,400 people and injured over 171,000 others in the assault that has left the enclave in ruins. The United Nations has estimated reconstruction costs at roughly $70 billion.
Israel has restricted the entry of food, medicine, medical supplies and shelter materials into Gaza, where about 1.5 million people are displaced out of a population of roughly 2.4 million and have lived under blockade for more than 18 years.
The restrictions violate a ceasefire agreement that took effect last October.
Awad Rjoob and Lina Altawell both write for Anadolu Agency, Haberler, The Muslim News
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