Doctors Without Borders Halts Operations in Gaza Following Regulatory Dispute Over Staff Privacy

The international humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), widely known as Doctors Without Borders, has been forced to suspend its vital operations across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. This significant disruption follows the Israeli government's decision to revoke the organization's operating license. The move is the direct result of a standoff regarding new 2025 regulatory requirements for international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), which mandate the disclosure of confidential personnel data—a demand MSF has firmly rejected to protect its staff.

This regulatory conflict reached a critical juncture when MSF’s license was officially terminated on January 1, 2026, accompanied by a formal order to cease all field activities by February 28, 2026. The dispute intensified in late December 2025, after Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, in coordination with COGAT, issued notifications to 37 international aid agencies. The directive required these organizations, including MSF, to provide exhaustive personal details regarding their local Palestinian employees. Israeli officials have defended these measures as essential safeguards to ensure that humanitarian aid remains neutral and is not diverted to armed groups.

MSF, which has been a primary provider of medical relief in the region since October 2023, maintains that revealing the personal identities of its Palestinian and international workforce would expose them to extreme risks. The organization stated that such transparency would violate its core operational principles. In an effort to find a middle ground, MSF offered on January 23, 2026, to share a limited list of names, but only under the condition of receiving strict, legally binding guarantees regarding data protection and the physical safety of its personnel. According to MSF leadership, the specific assurances required to safeguard their team members were not provided by the authorities.

The humanitarian impact of MSF’s withdrawal is expected to be catastrophic for the population of Gaza. Since the escalation of the conflict in October 2023, the organization has already mourned the loss of 15 staff members out of a total of 1,700 medical workers killed in the region. Prior to this suspension, MSF was responsible for providing roughly 20% of all hospital beds available in Gaza throughout 2025 and had conducted more than 800,000 medical consultations. Christopher Lockyear, the Secretary General of MSF, warned that the termination of these services will leave hundreds of thousands of Palestinians without access to essential healthcare during a period of acute crisis.

The situation has ignited a polarized international response. While former MSF Secretary General Alain Destexhe has publicly accused the organization of failing to maintain its traditional neutrality, other major NGOs, such as Oxfam and Doctors of the World, have labeled the Israeli demands as a "targeted political attack." These organizations argue that the measures violate international legal frameworks that obligate Israel to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. Additionally, a group of eight Muslim-majority nations, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt, has called on Israel to ensure that NGOs can operate without hindrance. Israeli authorities continue to maintain that the requirement for passport numbers and personal identification data, established by a March 1, 2025, resolution, applies uniformly to all organizations. Currently, international stakeholders are exploring alternative medical frameworks to maintain some level of care for the residents of the Gaza Strip.