At the end of December 2025, European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib said that Israel’s plans to block international NGOs in Gaza were jeopardising the delivery of vital humanitarian aid.
On 30 December, 37 international NGOs received official notification from Israel that their registration would expire on 31 December 2025, triggering a 60-day period after which these NGOs are required to cease their activities in Gaza and the West Bank.
“The EU has been clear: the NGO registration law cannot be implemented in its current form”, stressed the commissioner on X, calling for all obstacles to humanitarian access to be removed. She added: “International humanitarian law leaves no room for doubt: aid must reach those in need”.
At the end of December, the foreign ministers of Denmark, Finland, France, Sweden, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom called on Israel to ensure that international NGOs could operate in Gaza “in a sustained and predictable way“. “Any attempt to stem their ability to operate is unacceptable”, they stressed in a joint statement.
The ministers also called on Israel to ensure that the United Nations and its partners can continue their vital work, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
In addition, according to these countries, Israel must lift excessive restrictions on imports of goods considered to have a dual use, open crossings and increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, particularly the Rafah crossing, where the EUBAM Rafah mission is still waiting to be redeployed.
Moreover, according to a document from the prosecutor representing the Israeli government to the Supreme Court, seen by AFP, despite the ceasefire, “the entry of journalists (both foreign and non-foreign) into the Gaza Strip without an escort (...) must not be permitted“. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)