Humanitarian workers call to repeal a regulation threatening their activities in the Palestinian territories
UN agencies and NGOs called on Wednesday the Israeli authorities to repeal a regulation threatening all their humanitarian activities in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, a statement said.
Ces organisations “Call the Israeli authorities to repeal the requirement introduced on March 9 forcing NGOs to share sensitive personal information on their Palestinian employees, under penalty of having to cease their humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, including [à] East Jerusalem “according to this text by the humanitarian country team (HCT), a coordination body between the UN and more than 200 NGOs.
“Unless an urgent action, humanitarian organizations warn that most partners in international NGOs could be struck off by September 9 or earlier, forcing them to withdraw all their international staff and preventing them from providing essential and vital humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians”warns this press release.
“This requirement is part of a set of new restrictive conditions” imposed on international NGOs. “Already, NGOs that are not recorded in the new system are prohibited for sending any supply to Gaza”underlines the HCT.
“In July of this year, the authorities repeatedly rejected the requests of 29 NGOs aimed at sending humanitarian aid to Gaza, citing these organizations as” unauthorized “” “details the text. “This policy has already prevented the delivery of essential aid including drugs, [de la] food and [des] hygiene products »while NGOs “Internationals provide crucial support to Palestinian NGOs”.
“Without this cooperation, their operations will be interrupted, cutting even more communities of access to food, medical care, shelters and essential protection services”, deplore the text.
