Israel’s top court allows aid groups facing Gaza ban to continue working
Israel’s Supreme Court has ruled that dozens of international humanitarian agencies can continue to operate in the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian territories, freezing an earlier government ruling that excluded humanitarian groups that do not respect the new rules.
In a ruling Friday, Israel’s highest court issued a temporary injunction to allow NGOs to continue most of their activities while it considers that a petition from 17 humanitarian agencies against government ban.
Israel announced it would ban 37 humanitarian groups from war-torn Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem on March 1, a move that experts say could have potentially devastating consequences for Palestinians.
Humanitarian agencies – including Doctors Without Borders, MSF, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE – were informed by Israeli authorities in December that their Israeli work registrations had expired and that they had 60 days to renew them and provide lists containing personal information about their Palestinian staff.
The organizations say that respecting Israeli orders expose their Palestinian staff to possible reprisalsundermine the principle of humanitarian neutrality and violate European data protection law.
In a statement released after Friday’s decision, Shaina Low, communications advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said the decision was welcome, but highlighted the difficulties humanitarian agencies continue to face in Gaza.
“The injunction suspends the immediate closure. It does not reinstate visas, reopen access, or resolve the broader restrictions that continue to affect the delivery of aid.
“Despite a ceasefire agreement, conditions in Gaza remain dire and humanitarian needs in the West Bank continue to grow,” Low said.
Athena Rayburn, executive director of the Association of International Development Agencies, said she is “still waiting to see how the injunction will be interpreted by the state and whether or not it will mean an increase in our ability to operate,” adding that the situation inside Gaza remains “catastrophic.”
Israeli attacks continue in Gaza
In Gaza, at least six Palestinians were killed Friday in Israeli drone attacks targeting two police stations in the Bureij refugee camp in the central strip and the al-Mawasi neighborhood of Khan Younis in the south.
Medical sources from the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis reported the arrival of four bodies and several wounded following an Israeli military strike on a police checkpoint at al-Maslakh intersection in al-Mawasi.
The sources said the strike took place in an area outside the control of the Israeli army and described the condition of some of the injured as critical.
In the central Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were killed and others injured in a similar Israeli drone strike targeting a police station at the entrance to the Bureij refugee camp.
The attacks on Friday night were condemned by Hamas as undermining the efforts of mediators during a “ceasefire” phase. Israel rapes almost daily since October 10.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said it was a “bloody night. Israeli forces carried out a series of deadly airstrikes, this time focusing mainly on police checkpoints that were deployed too close to areas where armed militias operate in the eastern communities of the Gaza Strip, particularly in the Khan Younis and Bureij refugee camp.
“As a result, six police officers were killed… But here too, the time and place critically reshape the entire equation between the two sides. Israel has made it clear that Israel will not be responsible for reorganizing the remains of life in Gaza. This is why we can see that any form of restoration of previous services, including the police… will be thwarted,” he added.
