Israel is set to ban up to 40 aid organisations from Gaza. What will happen next?

Israel appears set to ban almost 40 international humanitarian organisations from operating in Gaza and the West Bank amid a critical humanitarian crisis in the middle of winter.

In the worst-case scenario, some say the departure of the NGOs from Gaza may lead to more Palestinians dying of exposure after floods killed six children this month.

Though famine warnings have been lifted since a ceasefire took effect in October, 77 per cent of Gazans face acute levels of food insecurity, according to a global hunger monitor, while a quarter of families live on one meal a day. Weak bodies are less likely to resist exposure to the cold and rain.

“The impact of the deregistration would be across all sectors: nutrition, food security, shelter and health,” Danish Refugee Council advocacy co-ordinator Louise Le Bret told The National.

Many NGOs have refused to comply with new Israeli rules demanding details of Palestinian staff. Charities say sharing data with a warring party – Israel – would breach duty of care and humanitarian principles. Israel says Palestinian NGO workers have in the past been found to be members of extremist groups.

Tom Fletcher, UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, has warned of the implications of Israel's new rules for charities. EPA

The tug-of-war has become the latest battle of narratives between Israel and a large part of the international humanitarian community over Gaza.

The matter is highly sensitive for NGOs, some of which declined to provide comment to The National, saying they fear endangering their staff or running afoul of Israeli authorities.

They have rejected Israeli accusations of hiding supposed links with terrorist groups and say they check the background of all their staff. Other criteria have been put forward by Israeli authorities, including promoting "delegitimization campaigns” against Israel.

'Huge impact'

On Friday, the head of the UN agency for humanitarian aid warned the departure of the charities from Gaza would have a “huge impact” on sustaining the pace of aid required by the peace plan.

Tom Fletcher, who leads the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said: “These are our essential allies and partners in the efforts to get massive amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, which is so badly needed.

“We’ve hugely scaled up in the last 60 days since that ceasefire, since that Sharm El Sheikh deal," he told t