The United Nations rights chief on Wednesday described Israel’s plan to suspend dozens of aid groups’ rights to operate in Gaza starting in January as “outrageous,” calling on states to urgently insist that Israel shift course. The EU warned the move would block “life-saving” assistance from reaching Gaza’s population.

“Such arbitrary suspensions make an already intolerable situation even worse for the people of Gaza,” the UN’s Volker Turk said in a statement.

His comment came after Israel said that 37 aid organizations will be barred from operating in Gaza unless they comply with its new guidelines requiring detailed information on Palestinian staff. The deadline for the groups to stop operations is March 1.

Israel has singled out international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), alleging that it had two employees who were members of Palestinian terror groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Apart from MSF, some of the 37 organizations to be hit with the ban are Norwegian Refugee Council, World Vision International, CARE and Oxfam, according to the list given by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry.

In a statement on Wednesday, MSF urged Israel to allow it and other NGOs “to continue working in the West Bank and Gaza in 2026.”

Several groups have said the new rules will have a major impact on aid distribution in Gaza, with humanitarian organizations saying the amount of aid entering the region remains inadequate.

“This is the latest in a pattern of unlawful restrictions on humanitarian access,” Turk said, pointing to Israel’s ban on the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA — which Jerusalem says has numerous staff members with ties to terror groups, including some who took part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre — and “attacks on Israeli and Palestinian NGOs amid broader access issues faced by the UN........

© The Times of Israel