News - Middle East: The chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that new Israeli restrictions on international aid groups and NGOs are further crippling the humanitarian response in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said the measures “set a dangerous precedent” and risk pushing Gaza’s relief operations even closer to collapse.

“Coming in the wake of anti-UNRWA legislation, these restrictions are part of a troubling pattern of disregard for international humanitarian law and increasing impediments to aid operations,” the UNRWA chief stated.

The remarks come after Israel passed legislation that permits the regime’s authorities to cut water, electricity, fuel, and communications to UNRWA facilities and allows for the expropriation of UN property in occupied East al-Quds, including the agency’s headquarters and its main vocational training center.

In the post, Lazzarini also appealed to the international community to push back against Israeli efforts to restrict the work of humanitarian organizations and international charities.

“Failing to push back against attempts to control the work of aid organizations will further undermine the basic humanitarian principles of neutrality, independence, impartiality and humanity underpinning aid work across the world,” the UN official said.

Israel has barred 37 international humanitarian organizations from operating in Gaza, including major groups such as Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières – MSF), CARE, Action Against Hunger, Oxfam affiliates, the Norwegian Refugee Council, World Vision, and Caritas.

Under the new rules, any group or staff member found to have supported boycotts of Israel, questioned Israeli military conduct, denied the October 7 Hamas-led operation, or backed international legal cases against Israeli officials can be barred from operating in Gaza. 

Israel has also banned the UNRWA from operating in the occupied territories after accusing some of its staff members of being involved in the al-Aqsa Storm operation in October 2023.

Despite repeated requests from the UNRWA for the Israeli regime to provide evidence supporting its allegations, the agency has received no response.

The UN agency has faced deepening financial turmoil since Israel launched a defamation campaign against it.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas also sternly condemned the “Zionist entity's decision to revoke the licenses of international relief organizations” operating in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian group stated that this escalation is “a blatant attempt to weaponize aid and further the humanitarian catastrophe manufactured by Israel.”

Hamas called for urgent international action to stop this "policy of collective punishment and starvation."

Despite a ceasefire, Israeli authorities have rejected multiple requests by international organizations to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza. 

In a ruling on October 22, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip, underscoring its legal obligation as an occupying power to ensure Palestinians have access to essential goods for survival.

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