Israel’s new registration rules for international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) risk leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza without lifesaving health care in 2026, warns Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
MSF is one of the largest medical organizations operating in Gaza today. The new requirements threaten to withdraw registration from INGOs beginning January 1, 2026. This non-registration would prevent organizations, including MSF, from providing essential services to people in Gaza and the West Bank.
Any reduction in humanitarian assistance in Gaza would be a disaster
After two years of war that leveled most of Gaza’s infrastructure and left people homeless, Palestinians in Gaza are nearly fully reliant on aid for basic survival. With Gaza’s health system already destroyed, the loss of independent and experienced humanitarian organizations’ access to respond would be a disaster for Palestinians.
MSF calls on the Israeli authorities to ensure that INGOs can maintain and continue their impartial and independent response in Gaza. The humanitarian response in Gaza is already highly restricted, and cannot afford further dismantlement.
“In the last year, MSF teams have treated hundreds of thousands of patients and delivered hundreds of millions of liters of water,” says Pascale Coissard, MSF emergency coordinator for Gaza. “MSF teams are trying to expand activities and support Gaza’s shattered health system. In 2025 alone, we carried out almost 800,000 outpatient consultations and handled more than 100,000 trauma cases.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have benefited from MSF’s services in Gaza this year alone
MSF provides a vast amount of lifesaving health care, yet even this is not enough to meet the overwhelming needs of people in Gaza. In 2025 alone, with a budget of nearly $118 million, MSF teams:
- handled over 100,000 trauma cases;
- managed care for over 400 beds;
- performed 22,700 surgical operations on nearly 10,000 patients;
- carried out almost 800,000 outpatient consultations;
- administered 45,000 vaccinations;
- assisted in more than 10,000 deliveries;
- provided more than 40,000 individual mental health sessions and group sessions for over 60,000 people;
- distributed more than 184 million gallons of water; and
- produced nearly 27 million gallons of clean water.
For 2026, MSF has committed an estimated $117 million to $140 million for its humanitarian response in Gaza. Many of the services provided by MSF are largely unavailable elsewhere in Gaza due to the destruction of the health system.
If Israeli authorities revoke MSF’s access to Gaza in 2026, a large portion of people in Gaza will lose access to critical medical care, water, and lifesaving support. MSF’s activities serve nearly half a million people in Gaza through our vital support to the destroyed health system. MSF continues to seek constructive engagement with Israeli authorities to continue its activities.
MSF has been working in Palestine since 1989. Currently, MSF supports six public hospitals and runs two field hospitals in Gaza. We also support four general health care centers and run an inpatient therapeutic feeding center for people with malnutrition, particularly children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Recently, MSF opened six new medical points providing wound care and other general health care services.
