Israel bars some aid workers from Gaza as groups face suspension

Impact of Israeli Restrictions on Humanitarian Aid

By Olivia Le Poidevin, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Rami Ayyub

Consequences for Medical Services

GENEVA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it had barred entry to Gaza of foreign medical and humanitarian staff whose organisations were ordered to cease operations unless they register employee details with Israeli authorities and meet other new rules.

Response from Aid Organizations

Fearing a renewed humanitarian crisis if medical and aid services can suddenly no longer access war-shattered Gaza, some of the 37 international nongovernmental organisations that were ordered to halt work are weighing whether to submit staff names to Israeli authorities, two aid sources told Reuters.

Local Perspectives on Aid Shortages

Three of the aid groups said their foreign staff were told by Israeli authorities this week they could not enter Gaza.

Israel's diaspora ministry, which manages the registration process, says the measures are meant to prevent diversions of aid by Palestinian armed groups. NGOs say sharing staff details poses too much of a risk, pointing to the hundreds of aid workers who were killed or injured during the two-year Gaza war.

Israel has shared little evidence of aid being diverted in the Palestinian enclave, an allegation that was disputed in a U.S. government analysis.

The diaspora ministry said that while the NGOs had been granted 60 days to conclude operations, "the entry of foreign personnel into Gaza is not approved". It said international staff with "approved organisations" including the United Nations could continue work as usual.

Three prominent global NGOs - Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Medecins du Monde Suisse and the Danish Refugee Council - said their international staff were refused entry to Gaza this week. Foreign aid staff had generally been permitted to rotate in and out of Gaza since the start of the war.

"If we don't have somebody in a key position, such as the emergency coordinator in charge of operations, then we either have to compensate, or we have a gap" in aid service, said Anna Halford, Gaza emergency coordinator at MSF.

'THE WHOLE SYSTEM BREAKS DOWN'

Israel's government said some 23 aid groups had agreed to the new registration rules, meaning humanitarian goods will continue to get into Gaza.

But a U.N.-led coordination body has said the international groups that have registered could meet only a fraction of the required humanitarian response in the devastated Gaza Strip, where homelessness and hunger remain rife.

Some of the 37 banned groups operate specialised services like field hospitals, aid officials say. MSF bolsters six Gaza health ministry hospitals and runs two field hospitals. The Medicos del Mundo NGO screens Gaza residents for malnutrition and provides mental health services.

"Without nutritional staff doing the screening and primary healthcare centres doing the therapeutic feeding and referral of patients with severe malnutrition to in-patient care - the whole system breaks down," an aid source told Reuters.

Fearing the loss of those essential services for Gaza's two million residents, some aid groups are considering reversing course and agreeing to the new registration rules.

"The essence of the debate (for aid groups) is how to safeguard their principles, humanitarian standards, and the safety of the local staff while being able to continue the services," a senior aid source said.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry unit that controls access to Gaza, said the NGOs' conduct "raises suspicion regarding the parties with whom they operate" in Gaza, but they remained free to register with the diaspora ministry.

'EVERYTHING IS MISSING'

Samira al-Ashqar, 40, who fled her Beit Lahia home to Al-Ansar camp in north Gaza with her disabled husband and nine others during the war, depends on Oxfam - one of the aid groups facing an Israeli ban - for food and financial support.

"Now, after the war, everything is missing, and things have become dire ... If these institutions were to stop, the people of Gaza would face complete devastation," al-Ashqar said.

Mohamed Abu Selmia, head of Gaza's Al Shifa Hospital, told Reuters the banning of groups like MSF could affect hundreds of thousands of people.

"The Israeli occupation's decision comes at a time of unprecedented deterioration in health conditions. We suffer acute shortages of medication that reach 100% in some areas, and 55% overall," he said.

MSF said an Israeli ban could also mean that foreign aid groups would no longer be able to pay local staff in Gaza because Israel could block bank transfers.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Rami Ayyub; editing by Mark Heinrich)