Aid organizations complain about Israel's blockade stance

According to international aid organizations, Israel is attempting to force independent humanitarian actors out of the country. New reporting requirements could force the organizations to cease their activities in the Palestinian territories , including the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank , including East Jerusalem, and withdraw their international staff, according to a statement from more than 100 non-governmental organizations. The Israeli measures are "part of a broader strategy to consolidate control and eradicate the Palestinian presence."

Statement from Israel comes promptly

Israel indirectly admitted some of the allegations. However, the alleged delays in aid only occurred when the organizations in question failed to provide the requested information, according to the Israeli Coordination Office for the Occupied Territories (COGAT).

A spokesperson added that this was a security screening. "Almost 20 international organizations" had already met the screening requirements and were delivering aid to the Gaza Strip "regularly and in full cooperation." The volume was "around 300 trucks" daily.

The background to the NGOs' criticism of Israel are registration requirements that are scheduled to take effect by the beginning of September and are already partially being implemented. The affected organizations see these as a tool used by the Israeli authorities to "block impartial aid, exclude Palestinian actors, and replace trustworthy humanitarian organizations with mechanisms that serve political and military goals."

The signatories of the declaration include Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, the Vatican umbrella organization Caritas Internationalis, and the Protestant Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, as well as the Swiss "Jewish Voice for Democracy and Justice in Israel/Palestine." They object, among other things, to the request for personal details of Palestinian employees and other sensitive information. They argue that their disclosure is inadmissible under data protection law and incompatible with humanitarian principles.

NGOs fear that aid to civilians could in future be denied "based on vague and politicized criteria such as alleged 'delegitimization' of the State of Israel." The procedure is aimed at controlling independent organizations, silencing them, and censoring their reports.

"We cannot continue like this," warns the Pope

The foreign ministers of 20 European Union member states and other governments also criticized the restrictions in a statement on Tuesday and called on Israel not to implement them. The United Nations had previously called for the rules to be withdrawn.

The Pope also spoke out again about the situation in the Gaza Strip. Pope Leo XIV renewed his appeal for an end to the conflict. The humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip must be resolved; "we cannot continue like this," he said, according to Vatican media. "We know the violence of terrorism and respect the many dead and hostages." The Israeli hostages must be freed, "but we must also think of the many who are starving," the Pope emphasized.

Zamir agrees, but warns of risks

Meanwhile, Israel's army chief approved the operational plans for the expansion of the military operation in the Gaza Strip , which was decided upon by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet. Chief of Staff Ejal Zamir "approved the main framework for the Israeli army's operational plan in the Gaza Strip" at a meeting, the army announced. According to Netanyahu, the plan envisions not only capturing Gaza but also crushing Hamas in the central refugee camps .

There is currently no concrete timetable for the expansion of the Israeli military operation. According to media reports, Army Chief Zamir, despite his approval, warned of the plan's significant risks. He said it endangered soldiers and the hostages believed to be in Gaza City. He also allegedly pointed to troop exhaustion and personnel shortages.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the Gaza Strip continues. According to Palestinian sources, there have been several airstrikes by the Israeli army, including one in Gaza City. Several buildings were shelled.

Residents there fear this could be preparations for an Israeli ground offensive. Seven people were killed in an attack at an aid distribution site northwest of Gaza, medical sources said. Seven more people, including five children, were killed in an airstrike on their tent in Gaza City.

The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the attack by Hamas and other Islamist terrorists on Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage to Gaza. Since then, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 61,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip. This figure, which cannot be independently verified, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by numerous countries around the world. Fifty hostages are believed to still be in Hamas' hands. According to Israeli estimates, 20 of them are still alive.

Further settlements planned in the West Bank

The situation is extremely tense not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Tensions there have been exacerbated by an announcement by Israel's far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who declared that settlement construction in the West Bank should continue.

As the Times of Israel reports, the minister plans to approve tenders for the construction of around 3,400 additional settler homes. Smotrich was quoted as saying that this step "buries the idea of a Palestinian state."

In 1967, Israel conquered, among other territories, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where today more than 700,000 Israeli settlers live among approximately three million Palestinians. Israeli settlements there are illegal under international law.

The Palestinians claim the territories for their own state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The United Nations considers the Israeli settlements a major obstacle to a peace settlement because they would leave little room for contiguous territory for the Palestinians in a possible two-state solution . A two-state solution envisions Israel and an independent Palestinian state coexisting peacefully side by side.

haz/AR/se (kna, epd, dpa, afp, rtr)