Photo: Gaza City. Najat stands outside her tent, flooded after heavy rain overwhelmed a nearby sewage system, destroying many of her possessions. WFP/Maxime Lelijour

On 30 December Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs announced they will revoke the licences of 37 international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) working in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, saying they failed to meet requirements under new registration rules.

By preventing ActionAid, International Rescue Committee, Médecins Sans Frontières, Norwegian Refugee Council and the others from bringing aid into Gaza, Israel will increase the number of innocent people dying of starvation, disease, relentless rain and strong winds which will flood the huge refugee camps during the next 40 days of the worst part of Gazan winter.

It has been well established that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This will only get worse as these revocations come into force. What is Israel’s excuse? Because, among other things, they have failed to hand over “complete” personal details of their staff. But if the INGOs did so it could put their staff at risk from the Israel Defence Forces.

The BBC reported that in a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said INGOs were integral to the humanitarian response in Gaza and that any attempt to stem their ability to operate was “unacceptable”.

“Without them, it will be impossible to meet all urgent needs at the scale required,” they warned.

The European Union’s humanitarian chief, Hadja Lahbib, said: “Israel’s plans to block INGOs in Gaza means blocking life-saving aid.”

But the Israeli government must be happy as they increase activities that aim, as UNA-UK has put it, to make Palestinian statehood impossible and to force Palestinians from their land. And starving people to death is obviously cheaper than bombing or shooting them.