Israell announced that he will ban the non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders from working in Gazi, because that medical charity refused to hand over a list of its staff in that territory.
The Israeli government has issued binding orders to 37 organizations to provide documents on their local and international workers in Gaza, claiming some employees have links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which Doctors Without Borders has vehemently denied, reports the BBC.
The deadline is 60 days.
Doctors Without Borders said it would not share a list of its Palestinian and international staff with Israeli authorities because it had not received guarantees of their safety, after which Israel said it was "initiating the process of suspending the activities" of the organization in Gaza.
The Israeli Ministry for the Diaspora and the fight against anti-Semitism announced that the submission of the list of employees is necessary, in order to prevent "terrorist operatives from infiltrating humanitarian structures."
The groups, which include Doctors Without Borders, Action Aid and the Norwegian Refugee Council, have been told they must end all operations in Gaza within 60 days.
Israel's decision was condemned by 10 countries, including the UK, France and Canada, which said the expulsion of the organizations would have a serious impact on access to basic services in Gaza.
Major negative consequences
Sam Rose of the UN Refugee Agency (UNRVA) told the BBC that this would have "major negative consequences for the ability of international organizations to provide health care in Gaza".
He pointed out that Doctors Without Borders has its reasons for not handing over staff lists, "bearing in mind that in the last two years a large number of employees of medical organizations and international organizations have been killed."
During the war in Gaza, 1.700 health workers were killed, including 15 from Doctors Without Borders.
Doctors Without Borders says it currently provides at least 20 percent of Gaza's hospital beds and operates about 20 health centers. Last year, they performed more than 800.000 medical interventions and more than 10.000 births.
Source: FoNet
