Seventeen international aid groups said they have petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to allow them to keep working in the Gaza Strip and other areas in the occupied Palestinian territory, where the Israeli government is set to halt their life-saving work next month.
The Israeli government says it will ban 37 aid groups from war-torn Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem on March 1, a move described as having potentially devastating consequences for Palestinians.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, aid groups said they have appealed to the Supreme Court seeking an urgent suspension of the plan to ban them from working, and are seeking an urgent interim injunction from the court pending a full judicial review of the Israeli order.
Oxfam International said on Tuesday that the forced closure of aid operations in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory could begin as early as Saturday.
“The effect would be immediate, extending well beyond individual organisations to the wider humanitarian system,” Oxfam warned.
“In Gaza, families remain dependent on external assistance amid continuing restrictions on aid entry and renewed strikes in densely populated areas,” it said in a statement.
“In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, military incursions, demolitions, displacement, settlement expansion and settler violence are driving rising humanitarian needs,” it added. Credit: aljazeera.com
