International humanitarian organizations petition High Court against ban on Gaza operations

Seventeen humanitarian organizations and NGOs including Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council file a petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice asking for an interim injunction against the expiration of the registration licenses of 37 groups providing humanitarian relief and services in Gaza.

The petition is filed against an inter-ministerial team under the auspices of the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, which has said it will not renew the licenses of organizations that have not complied with new registration requirements that came into effect last year. Those licenses expired on January 1, but the organizations were given 60 days to wind down their operations.

The inter-ministerial team stiffened the registration conditions last year, requiring international aid organizations to file a raft of documentation about their organization and operations, including a list of all foreign and Palestinian employees and those workers’ passport and personal identification numbers.

The petitioning organizations argue that “the cessation of the organizations’ activities will lead to a humanitarian collapse and irreparable harm to the right to life and health of hundreds of thousands of individuals in need,” thereby justifying the granting of an interim injunction against the new registration regulations until a final ruling.

The petition also argues that the inter-ministerial team delayed responding to registration requests by the organizations in question “for many months while creating a false representation that the applications were under review,” and then announced at the end of 2025 that the failure to comply with the new regulations meant the organizations’ registration would expire.

The petitioners also argue that transferring employee data would violate international law since it could endanger employees’ safety.

The Diaspora Affairs Ministry, which was designated by cabinet resolution to lead the registration process, has insisted that the new regulations are necessary due to what it says are findings by the security services that some aid workers have been involved in terrorist activities.