31 March, 2026: Following an initial hearing at Israel’s High Court on 23 March, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and 18 other leading humanitarian organisations reaffirm our decision to proceed with the petition we filed in February 2026 before the High Court, challenging Israel’s ban on 37 humanitarian organisations from operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). We have taken the unprecedented step of petitioning to the High Court with a coalition of humanitarian organisations, after Israeli authorities ordered us to cease operations in the OPT by the end of February under revised registration rules imposed by Israel, threatening to cut Palestinians off from essential humanitarian aid.
We have repeatedly raised serious concerns about Israel’s requests to provide personal information as part of the new registration process. In the OPT, medical and humanitarian workers have been intimidated, arbitrarily detained, attacked and killed by Israel. Therefore, without the necessary assurances that safeguard our staff, MSF will not share a list of its Palestinian staff with Israeli authorities. Since October 2023, following Hamas’ massacre on 7 October 2023, Israel has killed over 1,700 health workers in attacks on Gaza, as well as 15 of our own colleagues. The new registration requirements imposed by the Israeli authorities are a pretext to obstruct humanitarian assistance and violate humanitarian principles. They also violate our duty of care towards our staff, as well as international data protection standards.
Israel is forcing humanitarian organisations into an impossible position, designed to obstruct humanitarian assistance by banning principled, independent and experienced organisations, ergo cutting off life-saving care, with devastating consequences for people in the OPT.
What is needed now is a massive scale-up of unhindered humanitarian assistance which Israeli authorities, as the occupying power, are obliged to ensure. Since 1 January, Israel has entirely blocked MSF from bringing any supplies or international staff into Gaza. On 26 February, all international staff had to leave Gaza and the West Bank. MSF’s medical programmes are already facing shortages in Gaza. In the West Bank, we have had to significantly reduce some activities due to administrative and security barriers, while Palestinians face intensifying violence and movement restrictions. In the longer term, our activities may be impossible to maintain under such restrictive conditions.
While the High Court deliberates, MSF calls on governments of the international community to use all diplomatic, political, and legal leverage to demand that the Israeli government suspend these restrictions on life-saving aid and prevent further suffering for people in Gaza and the West Bank. We are committed to remaining in the OPT and providing assistance for as long as possible, as we have for nearly four decades.
Note to Editors
MSF is committed to remaining in Palestine and delivering life-saving medical care in Gaza and the West Bank. Our Palestinian colleagues, more than 1,400 in all, continue this vital work. Many of the services provided by MSF are largely unavailable elsewhere in Gaza due to the destruction of the health system. For 2026, MSF had planned to expand our programmes with a budget of 130 million euros.
MSF provides surgical care, wound management, maternity and paediatric services, mental health support, and water distribution across Gaza and the West Bank, supporting hospitals, field hospitals, and primary healthcare facilities.
MSF teams are continuing to provide medical care in 20 healthcare facilitates and medical points in Gaza. MSF plays a vital role in Gaza, supporting one in five hospital beds and assisting one in three mothers during childbirth, operating clinics for people with traumatic injuries and chronic illnesses, treating malnourished children and other patients, and distributed 700 million litres of water last year.
MSF is fully registered to work in Palestine, under our registration with the Palestinian Authority. We are working to preserve our humanitarian response in Gaza and the West Bank in an increasingly constrained environment. As an occupying power, the Israeli authorities are obliged to ensure humanitarian assistance is provided.
MSF is an international, medical, humanitarian organisation that delivers medical care to people in need, regardless of their origin, religion, or political affiliation. MSF Australia was established in 1995 and is one of 24 international MSF sections committed to delivering medical humanitarian assistance to people in crisis. Every year more than 120 Australians and New Zealanders go on assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières working as: doctors, midwives, psychologists, laboratory technicians, human resource/finance coordinators, pharmacists, mental health specialists and logisticians. MSF delivers medical care based on need alone and operates independently of government, religion or economic influence and irrespective of race, religion or gender. For more information visit msf.org.au
