EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib, has said that Israel’s plans to block international non-governmental organisations in Gaza would amount to blocking life-saving humanitarian assistance.
"Israel’s plans to block INGOs in Gaza means blocking life-saving aid. The EU has been clear: the NGO registration law can not be implemented in its current form. All barriers to humanitarian access must be lifted. IHL (international humanitarian law) leaves no room for doubt: aid must reach those in need," Lahbib said on X on Wednesday.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in October after two years of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza., but according to Palestinian officials at least 414 people in Gaza have been killed since in Israeli attacks.
Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed over 71,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.
Despite the ceasefire agreement taking effect in October, Israel continues to keep Gaza’s crossings largely closed, preventing the entry of mobile homes and reconstruction materials and worsening the humanitarian crisis affecting over two million people.
A global hunger monitor said on December 19 that conditions in Gaza no longer classifeid as famine after access for humanitarian and commercial food deliveries improved following the ceasefire.
But humanitarian agencies say the situation remains dire and far more aid needs to get into the small, crowded territory and that Israel is blocking needed items from entering.
