GENEVA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Israel said on Thursday it had barred entry to Gaza of foreign medical and humanitarian staff whose organizations were ordered to cease operations unless they register employee details with Israeli authorities and meet other new rules.
Fearing a renewed humanitarian crisis if medical and aid services can suddenly no longer access war-shattered Gaza, some of the 37 international nongovernmental organizations that were ordered to halt work are weighing whether to submit staff names to Israeli authorities, two aid sources told Reuters.
Three of the aid groups said their foreign staff were told by Israeli authorities this week they could not enter Gaza.
Israel’s diaspora ministry, which manages the registration process, says the measures are meant to prevent diversions of aid by Palestinian armed groups. NGOs say sharing staff details poses too much of a risk, pointing to the hundreds of aid workers who were killed or injured during the two-year Gaza war.
Israel has shared little evidence of aid being diverted in the Palestinian enclave, an allegation that was disputed in a US government analysis.
