Aid agencies fear the Israeli government will stop them from delivering life-saving programs in the Gaza Strip in the new year through new registration requirements for international humanitarian organisations.

Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism has introduced rules for aid organisations, including that they must not engage in any activities or criticism which "delegitimise" the state of Israel.

Aid groups said many of the new requirements were essentially political and sought to prevent or silence criticism of Israel's conduct in Gaza, which the Israeli government still prevents the international media from accessing without military escort.

"The first one is that we must recognise Israel as a Jewish and democratic state," said Bushra Khalidi, the policy lead for Oxfam in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

"Another one of these requirements in the new registration rules are about basically not carrying out delegitimising activities against Israel.

"We do not know what delegitimising activities means. It's not defined in the procedures. So that could be very much interpreted very vaguely. It's politicised. It's an opaque criteria.

"It means that if we are to report against on aid obstruction, on harm done to our colleagues … So if we were to monitor and report that, that would be a reason to refuse us registration or deregister us from Israel. And so basically it restricts our access but [it] also is meant to almost silence us."

Aid organisations said they were also required to submit the details of their staff and the families of staff members, including identity documents, something they are afraid to do because Israel killed hundreds of aid workers during the war.

"[This] is something that we would not usually and normally do, and in the circumstances where Israel has harmed over 500 humanitarian workers, including their families, you know, we would not be in a position to do that because of the duty of care that we owe to our staff and our colleagues in Gaza, but also all across the Palestinian territory," Ms Khalidi said.

A truck carrying aid waits in Israel to enter southern Gaza in October 2025.  (Reuters: Hannah McKay)

Aid agencies provide many of the essential services in Gaza, where Israel's bombardment and invasion during its two-year war against the militant group Hamas have destroyed most of the housing and infrastructure.

The Humanitarian Country Team, a United Nations-led body that brings together UN agencies and more than 200 aid organisations working in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), said Israel's new law "fundamentally jeopardises the continuation of humanitarian operations throughout the OPT".