Humanitarian agencies working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) have warned that life-saving aid operations risk collapse unless Israel immediately lifts new barriers that are blocking access and forcing international charities to shut down. 

In a sharply worded statement issued on Tuesday, the Humanitarian Country Team – which brings together senior UN officials and more than 200 local and international aid groups – called on the international community to press Israeli authorities to reverse measures that are choking humanitarian work, particularly in the Gaza Strip.

At the centre of concern is a new registration system for international non-governmental organisations, introduced earlier this year. 

Aid groups say the process is vague, politicised and impossible to meet without breaching humanitarian principles. 

Under the current rules, dozens of organisations face deregistration by the end of December, followed by the forced closure of their operations within weeks.

“These organisations are not optional extras,” the statement said. “If they are pushed out, the humanitarian response will not survive.”

International NGOs, working alongside UN agencies and Palestinian partners, deliver around one billion dollars’ worth of assistance each year across the territory. 

Yet millions of dollars’ worth of food, medicines, hygiene supplies and shelter materials are now stuck outside Gaza, unable to reach families in need.

The warning comes as winter deepens and amid fears that further restrictions could destabilise a fragile ceasefire.