Israel: New rules threaten to withdraw registration from international NGOs
Israel’s new registration rules for international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) risk leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza without lifesaving healthcare in 2026, warns Doctors Without Borders (MSF), one of the largest medical organisations operating in Gaza today. The new requirements threaten to withdraw registration from INGOs beginning 1 January. This non-registration would prevent organisations, including MSF, from providing essential services to people in Gaza and the West Bank.
With Gaza’s health system already destroyed, independent and experienced humanitarian organisations losing access to respond would be a disaster for Palestinians. MSF calls on the Israeli authorities to ensure that INGOs can maintain and continue their impartial and independent response in Gaza. The already restricted humanitarian response cannot be further dismantled.
“In the last year, MSF teams have treated hundreds of thousands of patients and delivered hundreds of millions of litres of water,” says Pascale Coissard, MSF emergency coordinator for Gaza. “MSF teams are trying to expand activities and support Gaza’s shattered health system; in 2025 alone, we carried out almost 800,000 outpatient consultations and handled more than 100 000 trauma cases, and if we obtain registration, we plan to continue strengthening our activities in 2026.”
MSF provides a vast amount of life-saving healthcare, yet even this is not enough to meet the overwhelming needs of people in Gaza. In 2025 alone, with a budget of more than €100 million, MSF teams handled over 100,000 trauma cases; managing the care for over 400 beds; performed 22,700 surgical operations on nearly 10,000 patients; carried out almost 800,000 outpatient consultations; administered 45,000 vaccinations; assisted in more than 10,000 deliveries; provided more than 40,000 individual mental health sessions and group sessions for over 60,000 people; distributed more than 700 million litres of water and produced nearly 100 million litres of clean water.
For 2026, MSF has committed an estimated 100-120 million euros for its humanitarian response in Gaza. Many of the services provided by MSF are largely unavailable elsewhere in Gaza due to the destruction of the health system.
If MSF loses its access to Gaza in 2026, due to the Israeli authorities, a large portion of people in Gaza will lose access to critical medical care, water, and lifesaving support. MSF’s activities serve nearly half a million people in Gaza through our vital support to the destroyed health system.
MSF continues to seek constructive engagement with Israeli authorities to continue its activities. In Gaza, MSF is currently supporting six public hospitals and runs two field hospitals. MSF also supports four general healthcare centres and runs an inpatient feeding centre for people with malnutrition. MSF has recently opened six new medical points providing wound care and other general health care services. MSF has been working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 1989.
Read more about our activities in Palestine
Patients in Nasser in urgent need of medical evacuation. Photographer: Nour Alsaqqa | Date: 12/11/2025 | Location: Palestinian Territories
MSF mental health counsellor and social worker supervisor on their way to assess the needs of a family that was attacked by settlers in Shi’b al-Butum, south of the West Bank, Palestine. Photographer: Oday Alshobaki | Date: 09/11/2025 | Location: Palestinian TerritoriesStatement_Israel's new registration law of INGOs_ Humanitarian gap Gazans cannot afford.docx
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Jane Rabothata
About Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a global network of principled medical and other professionals who specialise in medical humanitarian work, driven by our common humanity and guided by medical ethics. We strive to bring emergency medical care to people caught in conflicts, crises, and disasters in more than 70 countries worldwide.
In South Africa, we currently run a non-communicable diseases (NCDs) project in Butterworth, Eastern Cape province, where we support the Department of Health (DoH) in improving care for patients with diabetes and hypertension. The project focuses on improving screening, diagnosis, management, and prevention of NCDs through advocacy, research, health promotion, training, and mentorship of Community Healthcare Workers.
MSF is also recognised as one of the pioneers in providing antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the public sector. It started the first HIV programme in South Africa in 1999. The organisation's earlier interventions in the country have primarily been on developing new testing and treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis (TB) in Eshowe (Kwa-Zulu Natal) and Khayelitsha (Western Cape). The Eshowe project was handed over to DoH in 2023 after 12 years of operations. The Khayelitsha project was closed in 2020 after 22 years of activities and campaigning for improved HIV and TB treatment.
Other projects we have been involved in include our Migrant Project in the country's capital, Tshwane, which was handed over to authorities and a local Community-Based Organisation after building the capacity to work with undocumented populations. We also previously offered free, high-quality, and confidential medical care to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Rustenburg, North West province.
To learn more about our work in South Africa, please visit this page on our website (www.msf.org.za). To support MSF’s work:
- SMS “JOIN” to 42110 to donate R30 Once-off
- Visit https://www.msf.org.za/donate