Aid groups petition Israeli court to halt work bans in Gaza, West Bank
Children and water containers at a makeshift camp sheltering displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, 24 February 2026
Middle East Eye reports on 25 February 2026:
Seventeen international aid groups announced they have petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday to allow them to keep operating in the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem as the Israeli government’s ban on their life-saving work next month nears.
In December, Israel ordered 37 organisations to shutter operations by March for failing to meet its new stringent rules for aid groups after the NGOs refused to hand over a list of their Palestinian and international staff.
The joint legal petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice seeks an urgent suspension of the decision, warning that it will lead to a “humanitarian collapse and irreparable harm”, according to a statement by the groups on Tuesday.
The petition argues that the ban on aid groups shows “extreme unreasonableness and lack of proportionality”. The groups also say that Israel has no mandate to shut down organisations functioning in territories that fall under the Palestinian Authority’s nominal jurisdiction.
Millions of Palestinians rely on humanitarian aid for essential needs in war-torn Gaza and the West Bank. Oxfam International, one of the organisations affected by the ban, said on Tuesday that “the effect would be immediate, extending well beyond individual organisations to the wider humanitarian system”.
“In Gaza, families remain dependent on external assistance amid continuing restrictions on aid entry and renewed strikes in densely populated areas,” Oxfam said. “In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, military incursions, demolitions, displacement, settlement expansion and settler violence are driving rising humanitarian needs.”