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Humanitarian

AIDA-led Statement Petition Hearing

Humanitarian organizations reaffirm decision to pursue petition before Israel’s High Court of Justice following recent hearing.  

Today, 18 members from a coalition of humanitarian organizations represented by the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), have reaffirmed their decision to proceed with a petition before Israel’s High Court of Justice, following the hearing held last week.  

The petition was brought by AIDA and a number of other INGOs operating in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), following the introduction of a new Israeli registration system which placed dozens of international humanitarian organizations, including many AIDA members, at risk of further restricting their ability to operate in Israel and the oPt. Although applications under the new system were submitted, they remain stalled because of demands for extensive confidential staff data. 

Given the severe implications for humanitarian access, AIDA members continue this legal process because they believe the case raises essential questions of law that deserve full judicial consideration. At the hearing, the Court restricted arguments to the narrow issue of data privacy, preventing petitioning organizations from presenting the broader legal and security issues involved, including Israel’s obligations as an occupying power and the legality of measures that could impede humanitarian activity. AIDA members were deeply concerned that the hearing did not provide sufficient space to address these central questions, and that petitioning organisations, as well as diplomats, were not allowed in to the court hearing, while senior Israeli government officials, their entourages and other observers not affiliated with any of the proceedings, were permitted entry and were disruptive.

The State has confirmed that it is requiring the submission of extensive personal data for all staff in Gaza and the West Bank, regardless of any connection to entry into Israel. In a context where hundreds of humanitarian workers have been killed, the compelled transfer of sensitive data without clear safeguards, transparency, or limitations on use creates real risks. It would also breach international data protection standards and the legal obligations of many organizations based in the European Union. This places petitioning organizations in an impossible position, as compliance with these requirements would violate their legal obligations and duty of care, while non-compliance would likely result in the rejection of their petition. 

Petitioning organizations stress that they are committed to doing everything in their power to ensure they can continue to operate in the oPt and continue delivering assistance under Palestinian Authority registration, but they fear that the loss of Israeli registration will further hinder their ability to operate across the territory at a time when humanitarian needs remain overwhelming. INGOs are integral to the response. In Gaza they deliver more than half of all food assistance, support most field hospitals, and provide essential shelter, water, sanitation, nutrition, mine action, and emergency education services. Even while organisations held valid registration, INGOs were blocked from bringing goods into Gaza for over a year and, during the interim period, had requests to deploy international staff into the Strip denied. Any further reduction in operational access would have predictable and even more devastating consequences for civilians. 

Given the catastrophic conditions in Gaza and the deteriorating situation in the West Bank, including increased settler violence, rising displacement, and deepening access restrictions. Humanitarian access must expand rather than contract. 

AIDA and petitioning members therefore call on the Israeli authorities to review and adjust the current registration procedures, so they do not obstruct humanitarian relief. They also call on donor governments to use all available diplomatic, political, and legal avenues to press for the suspension and reversal of measures that restrict humanitarian access.

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Note to editors

On International Law including IHL, and EU-Israel Treaty Relations 

  • As an occupying Power, Israel is bound by the Fourth Geneva Convention, which imposes a positive obligation to allow and facilitate relief schemes for the benefit of the protected population (see, in particular, Articles 59 and 63). 

  • In this framework, humanitarian organizations must be permitted to carry out their activities in accordance with their humanitarian functions, and the occupying Power may not impose changes to their personnel or structure that would undermine those activities.

  • Measures that condition the presence or operation of humanitarian organizations on the disclosure of sensitive personal data are inconsistent with this legal framework. Such measures effectively convert a duty to facilitate humanitarian relief into a mechanism of control, which is not provided for under international humanitarian law.

  • Furthermore, under international law, the State of Palestine retains sovereign authority to invite, consent to, and oversee humanitarian and development assistance within its territory. This competence is not extinguished by the fact of occupation; rather, it continues to operate alongside – and to limit – the authority of the occupying Power. Is it reflected in Annex III (Protocol Concerning Civil Affairs) of the 1995 Interim Agreement between the State of Israel and the Palestine Libera on Organization (PLO) and reiterated by Israel in its submission to the International Court of Justice in the 2025 advisory proceedings on the presence and activities of intentional organizations. 

  • As affirmed by the International Court of Justice in its 2024 and 2025 Advisory Opinion, occupation does not confer sovereignty or title, does not displace the sovereign rights of the occupied State, and does not authorize the restructuring of humanitarian space in disregard of the will and needs of the occupied population. Claims that Israel may unilaterally exclude organizations invited by Palestinian authorities, or dictate the terms of their operation irrespective of Palestinian consent, are difficult to reconcile with peremptory norms of international law, including the right to self-determination. 

  • Article 2 of the EU–Israel Association Agreement elevates respect for human rights and democratic principles to an “essential element” of the relationship. Where a partner State adopts measures that foreseeably compel EU-domiciled entities to act in breach of EU law, including core data protection obligations under the General Data Protection Regula on, it becomes a question of compliance with the normative foundation of the agreement itself.

  • EU-based INGOs are bound by GDPR Chapters II and V to ensure that any transfer of personal data is lawful, necessary, proportionate, and subject to enforceable safeguards. Article 48 of the GDPR is explicit in that disclosures pursuant to third-country administrative measures must be grounded in an international agreement or otherwise comply with EU law. A unilateral demand backed by the threat of exclusion from humanitarian operations does not satisfy that standard. 

  • To place EU entities in a position where compliance with one legal regime necessitates violation of another is, from the EU’s perspective, an interference with the effectiveness of its own law. That interference feeds directly into the doctrine of good faith performance of treaties, codified in Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Articles 26 and 27. Parties must perform treaties in good faith and may not invoke internal law as justification for failure to perform. While Israel is not bound to apply EU law as such, it is bound, within the framework of the Association Agreement, to conduct itself in a manner that does not defeat the object and purpose of the treaty or render its partner’s legal obligations inoperable in practice. Measures that systematically force EU-regulated actors into non-compliance with EU law, as a condition of accessing occupied territory for humanitarian work, risk crossing that line.

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Israeli forces using Gaza playbook in Lebanon, decimating water infrastructure – Oxfam

Oxfam fears that Israel’s military blueprint of attacking water infrastructure, used throughout its genocide in Gaza, is now being rolled out across parts of Lebanon.

Israeli forces are destroying water and sanitation infrastructure including strikes near sites that were being rehabilitated after having been destroyed or damaged in the last war, Oxfam analysis has found.

The Geneva conventions prohibit attacks on water installations and other objects that are critical for people to survive. Using deprivation of water as a method of warfare is outlawed. Any intentional deprivation of water or obstruction of aid may constitute a war crime.

In a span of four days in the first weeks of the latest escalation, Israel damaged at least seven critical water sources including reservoirs, pipe networks and pumping stations that supplied water to almost 7,000 people in the Bekaa area alone.

In Southern Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes after Israel’s blanket mass forced displacement orders, Oxfam and partners are responsible for carrying out rehabilitation work at 19 important water facilities that provide clean water for up to 60,000 people. Six were damaged by Israeli bombardment in last year’s escalation. There have been confirmed strikes in many of the areas where these facilities are located.

Due to the intensity of the attacks in these areas, Oxfam teams cannot now safely access these sites to assess whether they too are now destroyed or damaged or ensure they are functioning properly so that people remaining in the villages have water. Long term impacts will also be devastating for communities if they don’t have clean water when they are able to return home.

The destruction of civilian infrastructure has not been limited to critical water facilities. Israel has also destroyed electricity networks and bridges, cutting off vital supplies and services for entire towns and villages.

Bachir Ayoub, Oxfam Lebanon Country Director, said: “It’s clear that the Israeli Forces are repeating the same pattern in Lebanon as they did in Gaza. Attacking civilians, critical civilian infrastructure, emergency services personnel – including 12 medics killed in a single strike – and aid workers. Aiming to maximize disruption and fear among the population, while ignoring international law.”

Carlos Calderon, Oxfam Aotearoa’s Head of Humanitarian and Partnerships said: “Water is a lifeline, not a military target. Turning critical water infrastructure into a weapon of war disproportionately affects civilians fleeing for their lives. No family should be forced abandon their homes or have their basic lifelines cut off.”

Ayoub continues: “The impunity Israel enjoyed in Gaza as it committed water war crimes is again on full display. The world has shown Israel can do what it wants, whenever it wants, without repercussion and again it is civilians who are paying the ultimate price for this inaction.”

During the 2024 escalation, Israel damaged more than 45 water networks in Lebanon, impacting almost half a million people, increasing the risk of disease outbreaks and contributing to the loss of livelihoods and green areas. Given the ongoing lack of accountability that has allowed Israel to consistently violate international law across the region, Oxfam is concerned these renewed attacks will see a sharp rise in the destruction of civilian infrastructure that is already occurring.

Despite the scale of destruction and mounting evidence of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, Oxfam says the international community remains complicit in its silence and, in many cases, support to Israel as it continues to occupy and invade parts of Lebanon.

“There must be an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and end to this war” said Ayoub. “The international community stood by in Gaza and watched Israel’s weaponization of water and its catastrophic consequences to men, women and children there. The same devastation must not be allowed to play out again in Lebanon. Israel must be held to account for its violations and must not be allowed to occupy more land, deny more civilians of their basic rights, and continue to abuse international law without consequence.”

Calderon concludes: “Our team is on the ground to provide water, this most essential human right, and we need your help to keep that lifeline open.”

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For more details, please contact: [email protected]

Note to editors

In the Policy Brief Water Under Fire: Supporting Lebanon’s Water Services Amid Escalating Conflict Oxfam reached out to water establishments across three highly impacted regions in Lebanon after Israeli attacks.

In July 2024 Oxfam released the report Water War Crimes: How Israel has weaponised water in its military campaign in Gaza presenting a detailed analysis of how the Government of Israel systematically weaponized water against the Palestinians in its latest assault on Gaza.

Before the latest escalation, Oxfam was rehabilitating eight water pumping systems in Mansouri, Nmairiyyeh, Srifa, Zaita, Ankoun, Allousiyyeh, Kfardounin, Jbal Al Botom; three water networks in Tyre, Kherbit Silm, Khiam; four reservoirs in Ater, Toura and Zebkin; and four water filtration systems in Mais Eljabal, Bintjbeil, Kfartebnit, and Deir Knaoun Nahr.

Water Under Fire: Supporting Lebanon’s Water Services Amid Escalating Conflict

Lebanon faces yet another devastating war, and the country’s already overstretched institutions are struggling to maintain the essential services that millions depend on every day, including water, hygiene and sanitation (WASH) services. 

As Israeli attacks in Lebanon expand and the socioeconomic situation deteriorates further, inadequate WASH services would mean a range of grim consequences. Deteriorating access to hygiene, loss of livelihoods, loss of green areas, and health outbreaks are some of the many repercussions that Lebanon will face if its water facilities are not supported and water services swiftly delivered. 

Oxfam reached out to water establishments across three highly impacted regions in the country, namely coordinators for the South Lebanon Water Establishment, the Bekaa Water Establishment, and the Beirut-Mount Lebanon Water Establishment, to get a better idea of water services during the escalation. Water establishments are regional public utilities responsible for water supply and wastewater management in Lebanon. 

Download Report

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

South Sudan evacuation order removes humanitarian support for over 200,000 people and deepens catastrophic conditions – Oxfam

The evacuation order for the northern border town of Akobo East in South Sudan, which forced tens of thousands of people – including all aid agency staff – to leave at the weekend, has closed critical humanitarian programmes for over 200,000 people and deepened catastrophic conditions, Oxfam said today.

Evacuated Oxfam staff are reporting that even before the latest escalation, the humanitarian situation was already dire. Communities were under immense pressure, with many families surviving on wild fruits and leaves from the bushes. Akobo East hosts more than 188,000 residents and had been sheltering an additional 82,000 people displaced by conflict from other parts of Jonglei State.

With the evacuation order now forcing many to flee again, thousands of families are facing secondary displacement, leaving them with even fewer resources and support. More than half of those displaced people are women and children. The escalating violence and repeated displacement is increasing the threat of sexual violence and abduction, and also the risk of child marriage.

Shabnam Baloch, Oxfam’s South Sudan Country Director said: “This evacuation order has forced the closure of all humanitarian support, it is outrageous. Living conditions were already extremely bad and now exhausted people, many of whom were already displaced, have been forced to move yet again because of the spiralling conflict.”

On Friday 6 March the order was given by the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces for everyone – including hundreds of UN and aid agency staff – to evacuate within four days. Alfred Chandonga, a local Oxfam Project Manager who himself was forced to flee, described the situation: “I was struck by the crushing sight of families being forced into the wilderness yet again. These were the same people who had arrived from Walgak only weeks ago, weary but hopeful that they could finally set down their heavy bundles and rest. Instead, safety vanished in an instant. There was no time to grieve the lives they left behind.

“Watching them walk into the haze of uncertainty was heartbreaking; I saw women, the true face of this crisis, balancing their entire lives in their hands. With infants on their backs and toddlers clutching their dresses, they moved toward a horizon where neither the next meal nor the safety of the path is guaranteed. They only know they must keep walking. The world cannot afford to look away.”

Most of the displaced population have fled to Tergol, a key border crossing point for South Sudanese refugees while 37,000 people have already crossed into the Gambella region of Ethiopia, on top of around 78,000 people who already arrived there in January according to UNOCHA in South Sudan. This additional population movement is placing even more strain on Gambella which hosts over 450,000 South Sudanese refugees.

Support to new asylum seekers from South Sudan has become increasingly difficult in Ethiopia due to immense pressure and reduced funding cuts as several organizations have had to reduce essential services due to lack of funding. Oxfam, which leads on providing clean water and sanitation services, has been forced to scale down its operations reaching even fewer people at a time when needs are increasing.

Ethiopia is facing its own overlapping crises from conflict to drought with some areas reporting crop losses due to the failure of the last two rainy seasons, leaving households empty-handed.

The South Sudan 2026 humanitarian response plan projects that over 10 million people – two-thirds of the population – will require some humanitarian assistance including 7.5 million people who are at risk of starvation.

Oxfam is calling on all parties in South Sudan to de-escalate the conflict and prioritise the protection of civilians and guarantee safety of humanitarian access to populations in need in Akobo county, including at the border with Ethiopia.

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Note to editor

The audio testimony of Alfred Chandonga, Oxfam’s local Project Manager in Akobo, can be downloaded for media use.

Contact information:

For more details, please contact: [email protected]

Oxfam responds to mass forced displacement in Lebanon and ready to respond to wider regional crisis

Oxfam and partners are responding to the immediate needs of people who have been forcibly displaced by Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Lebanon, as the conflict across the region enters a dramatically new and dangerous phase.

Oxfam in Lebanon is scaling up its emergency response by supporting thousands of people across shelters in Mount Lebanon, the South, and the Bekaa, providing bedding kits, hygiene kits, menstrual hygiene management kits, and clean water. 

“This expansion of Israeli occupation and its bombing of Lebanon will devastate people across Lebanon who had not yet recovered from the last wave of violence, inflicting more trauma on an already traumatized population,” said Lebanon country director Bachir Ayoub. “Once again, families have been forced from their beds and their homes as Israel rained bombs down on their communities”.

There is grave concern about the scale and impact the conflict will have on tens of millions of people across the region, where almost 60 million already rely on humanitarian aid. The broader escalation in the region is triggering further mass forced displacement, placing additional strain on overstretched systems and pushing humanitarian conditions further towards catastrophe.

It will widen inequality gaps, intensify existing poverty and injustice, and limit the ability of humanitarian organisations to reach communities in need. 

“Global inaction has set the scene for this dangerous escalation,” said Ayoub. “The inability of the international community to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing violations of international law has led us to this point, where we again see hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon forced to flee in the march towards a wider regional war.”

Oxfam staff and partners are poised to respond with pre-positioned life-saving aid throughout the countries where the aid agency operates if the escalation is allowed to further spill out across the Middle East

In light of unlawful attacks by the United States and Israel and Iran’s retaliation, Oxfam demands that the international community reaffirm its commitment to international law. Rules governing the use of force must be applied equally, most of all the prohibition against the aggressive use of force enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The U.S, Israel, Iran and all parties to the conflict must immediately cease their attacks, de-escalate the chaos across the region and refrain from future actions that lead to yet another cycle of violence.

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Notes to editors: 

Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 indicates nearly 59.2 million people across the region require humanitarian assistance

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REACTION: Oxfam urges New Zealand to oppose Middle East escalation and push for civilian protection.

Oxfam Aotearoa is deeply concerned by the escalation of military conflict across the Middle East and wider region. Oxfam calls on the New Zealand Government to take a firm stand in support of peace and International Humanitarian Law, pressing all parties to protect civilians and return to diplomatic negotiations.

As Oxfam America President Abby Maxman states:

“The United States and Israel’s attacks on Iran fall outside the narrow bounds of lawful self- defense, undermining the very rules-based order these governments claim to defend.

And the silence of many Western leaders in the face of these initial strikes is deeply alarming. Moments like this demand moral courage, not political calculation.”

Our humanitarian workers across the region are responding to urgent humanitarian needs wherever access is possible and until funds are available, in close coordination with our partners. However, humanitarian assistance alone cannot keep pace with the scale and speed of suffering generated by ongoing hostilities. Aid cannot substitute for political solutions. 

For this reason, Oxfam has joined a statement by 14 humanitarian organisations working in the region, calling for an immediate end to the military violence, protection of civilian populations, and a return to diplomatic talks with the goal of a lasting peace.

Oxfam Aotearoa Executive Director Jason Myers has expressed solidarity with all communities affected by the conflict and called on the New Zealand Government to take a clear stance against military escalation:

“New Zealand has long stood for diplomacy, international law, and the protection of civilians. Our government must take a clear and principled stance against further military escalation in the Middle East, advocating for de-escalation, humanitarian protection, and a genuine path to peace”.

Contact information:

Rachel Schaevitz | Head of Communication, Media & Advocacy, Oxfam Aotearoa

Email: [email protected], Mobile: +64 (0)27 959 5555