Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has announced that it will not share a list of its Palestinian and global staff with Israel, after failing to secure assurances around safety and independence.
Last year, the Israeli government announced that NGOs seeking registration to operate in occupied Palestine would be required to hand over personal information about their staff.
On 30 December, 37 NGOs, including MSF, received an official notification that their registrations would expire the next day, triggering a two-month period after which they would be required to cease operations in Gaza, as well as the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said at the time that organizations that had failed to meet their “security and transparency requirements” would have their licenses suspended.
The ministry said the ban would also apply to those who “refused to submit a list of their Palestinian employees in order to rule out any links to terrorism”.
“MSF informed Israeli authorities on 23 January that, as an exceptional measure, MSF would be prepared to share a defined list of Palestinian and international staff names, subject to clear parameters, with our staff safety at its core,” the medical humanitarian organization said on Friday.
It said that position was defined by consultation with Palestinian colleagues, with a clear understanding that no staff would have their information shared without their consent.
“However, despite repeated efforts, it became evident in recent days that we were unable to build engagement with Israeli authorities on the concrete assurances required,” MSF said.
The organization said it did not receive assurances that staff information would only be used for administrative purposes and wouldn’t put colleagues at risk; that MSF would retain authority over human resources and management of medical supplies; and that Israeli communications defaming MSF and undermining its staff would stop.
“As a result, and in the absence of these clear assurances, we have concluded that we will not share staff information in the current circumstances,” it said. “No staff information has been shared with the Israeli authorities in this process.”
Since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began in October 2023, more than 1,700 health workers have been killed. Fifteen of them were MSF staff.
More than 71,000 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza – a figure that the Israel army has recently accepted the accuracy of.
Since a ceasefire was agreed in October, there have been more than 1,300 reported violations committed by Israel, with close to 500 Palestinians killed.
“If MSF is expelled from Gaza and the West Bank it would have a devastating impact, as Palestinians face a brutal winter amidst destroyed homes and urgent humanitarian needs,” MSF said.
It added that basic services including food, water, shelter and fuel were destroyed, and the health system nearly non-functional.
Last year, MSF said it provided 800,000 consultations, assisted in one in three births, and supported one in five hospital beds.
Dozens of NGOs have previously written to Israel to urge it against the registration measures which they said would halt operations at a time of acute humanitarian need.
They said it would set a dangerous precedent in extending Israeli authority over humanitarian operations in occupied Palestine, contrary to internationally recognized legal frameworks.
Eight Muslim majority countries – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt – also urged Israel to ensure that the UN and NGOs were able to operate in Gaza and the West Bank in a “sustained, predictable, and unrestricted manner.”
IMAGE CREDIT: A Palestinian woman arrives with a child at the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) clinic, in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City on 31 December 2025 (AFP/Omar al-Qattaa)
