Caritas among agencies banned from Gaza under Israeli rules

Israel requires nongovernmental organisations to meet new requirements, which mandate complete disclosure of staff, funding sources and operational structures.

Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Jerusalem were among dozens of humanitarian organisations that Israel banned from operating in Gaza.

The Israeli authorities announced last week that 37 international aid organisations would be barred from the territory from 1 March. United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk described the move as “shameful”, while the UN and the European Union warned it would deprive Gaza’s residents of vital aid, particularly food.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health has recorded 455 deaths caused by malnutrition since October 2023, including 151 children. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, no child in Gaza meets the minimum standards for dietary diversity, and two-thirds of children are suffering from severe food deprivation.

Last March, Israel set a 10-month deadline for nongovernmental organisations to meet new requirements, which mandate the complete disclosure of staff, funding sources and operational structures. It said the new standards were necessary to expose any links to terrorist organisations.

Farid Jubran, a spokesman of the Latin Patriarchate, said that Caritas Jerusalem is “a humanitarian and development organisation operating under the umbrella and governance of the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land”.

Responding to the ban on 31 December, he reported that Caritas Jerusalem has not “undertaken any re-registration process with the Israeli authorities” and Caritas Internationalis does not “implement or conduct any direct interventions within the country”.

“Caritas Jerusalem will continue its humanitarian and development operations in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, in accordance with its mandate,” he said.

George Anton, administrative director of Caritas Medical Center in Gaza, said the agency’s work in Gaza is “very important and essential” and expressed hope that they will be able to continue their work. The Israeli measures mean organisations cannot bring aid into Gaza but may continue to operate with supplies already within the territory.

In the West Bank, the last family in the Palestinian village of Yanoun, southeast of Nablus, left their home last week, joining a growing list of communities that have been erased by illegal Israeli settlers. Residents said masked settlers regularly entered the hamlet, beating people, throwing stones, destroying crops, emptying water tanks and stealing sheep.

The Tent of Nations farm, south of Bethlehem, thanked international volunteers who visited and helped harvest crops and offer solidarity and support to the Nassar family “to continue the struggle for justice through nonviolence”.

Rabbis for Human Rights planted olive trees with the Palestinian community of Khalail el-Luz and distributing food parcels to Palestinian-Bedouin communities to help them remain on their land.

In 2025, Israel authorised around 50 settlements against international law – more than in any previous year. On 31 December the World Council of Churches called on the EU to impose sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel for what it called a “war of genocide” in Gaza and violations against Palestinians in the West Bank.

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