Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in a statement, announced the decisions that would make it easier for Jewish settlers to force Palestinians to give up land. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel has said 37 aid organisations will be banned from operating in Gaza from Thursday (January 1, 2026) unless they comply with guidelines requiring detailed information on Palestinian staff, drawing criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.

Several NGOs have told AFP the new rules will have a major impact on food and medical shipments to Gaza, at a time when humanitarian organisations say the amount of aid getting in is inadequate to the devastated territory’s needs.

Israel’s deadline for NGOs to provide the details expires at midnight on Wednesday (December 31, 2025).

“They refuse to provide lists of their Palestinian employees because they know, just as we know, that some of them are involved in terrorism or linked to Hamas,” spokesman for the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Gilad Zwick told AFP, naming 37 NGOs that had so far failed to meet the new requirements.

“I highly doubt that what they haven’t done for 10 months, they will suddenly do in less than 12 hours,” Mr. Zwick said. “We certainly won’t accept any cooperation that is just for show, simply to get an extension.”

The Ministry had said in a statement on Wednesday (December 31, 2025) that the move was part of Israel’s decision to “strengthen and update” regulations governing the activities of international NGOs in the Palestinian territory.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place in Gaza since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023.

For Israel, it says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.

On Tuesday (December 30, 2025), Israel specified that “acts of de-legitimising Israel” or denial of events surrounding Hamas’ October 7 attack would be “grounds for license withdrawal”.

Israel has singled out international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), alleging that it had two employees who were members of Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Apart from MSF, some of the 37 NGOs to be hit with the ban are the Norwegian Refugee Council, World Vision International, CARE and Oxfam, according to the list given by Mr. Zwick.

‘Guarantee access’

On Wednesday (December 31, 2025), the United Nations rights chief Volker Turk described Israel’s decision as “outrageous”, calling on states to urgently insist Israel shift course.

“Israel’s suspension of numerous aid agencies from Gaza is outrageous,” he said in a statement, warning that “such arbitrary suspensions make an already intolerable situation even worse for the people of Gaza”.

The European Union also warned that Israel’s decision would block “life-saving” assistance from reaching Gazans.

“The EU has been clear: the NGO registration law cannot be implemented in its current form,” EU humanitarian chief Hadja Lahbib posted on X.

“IHL (international humanitarian law) leaves no room for doubt: aid must reach those in need,” Ms. Lahbib wrote.

On Tuesday (December 30, 2025), the Foreign Ministers of ten countries, including France and the United Kingdom, had already urged Israel to “guarantee access” to aid in the Gaza Strip, where they said the humanitarian situation remains “catastrophic.”

In a territory with 2.2 million inhabitants, “1.3 million people still require urgent shelter support,” the Ministers of Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said.

While a deal for a ceasefire that started on October 10 stipulated the entry of 600 trucks per day, only 100 to 300 are carrying humanitarian aid, according to NGOs and the United Nations.

COGAT, the Israeli Defence Ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said last week that on average 4,200 aid trucks enter Gaza weekly, which corresponds to around 600 daily.

Published – December 31, 2025 08:30 pm IST

‘There is no grand strategy at play for Field Marshal Munir’. Photo: Special Arrangement

Red Cross personnel, escorted by Hamas militants, wait to head towards an area within the so-called “yellow line” to which Israeli troops withdrew under the ceasefire, as Hamas says it continues to search for the bodies of deceased hostages seized during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in Gaza City, on November 12, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israeli planes and tanks pounded areas across the Gaza Strip overnight and on Sunday (October 5, 2025), destroying several residential buildings, witnesses said, as Palestinians desperately awaited implementation of a U.S. plan to end the war.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who had called for an end to the bombing, said on Saturday (October 4, 2025) on his Truth Social platform that Israel had agreed to an “initial withdrawal line” inside Gaza and that “when Hamas confirms, the Ceasefire will be IMMEDIATELY effective.”

The Israeli escalation comes as Egypt prepares to host delegates from Hamas, Israel and the U.S., and Qatar, to kick off talks over the implementation of the most advanced effort yet to halt the conflict.

Sensitive Issues

Hamas had drawn a welcoming response from Mr. Trump on Friday (October 3, 2025) by saying it accepted certain key parts of his 20-point peace proposal, including ending the war, Israel’s withdrawal, and the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian captives.

But the group has left some issues subject to further negotiation, as well as questions unanswered, such as whether it would be willing to disarm, a key demand from Israel to end the war.

“Progress would depend on whether Hamas would agree to the map, which shows the Israeli army would remain in control of most of the Gaza Strip,” said a Palestinian official, close to the talks. “Hamas may also ask for a strict timetable for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The first phase of talks will determine how things are going to proceed,” he told Reuters, asking not to be named.

In Gaza City, which Israel describes as one of Hamas’s last bastions, Israeli forces pressed ahead with attacks and warned residents who left against returning, saying it was a “dangerous combat zone”.

On Sunday (October 5, 2025), witnesses said Israeli planes escalated attacks against targets across the city, Gaza’s biggest urban centre.

This followed a tense night in which drones dropped grenades on the rooftops of residential buildings and troops blew up explosive-laden vehicles, demolishing dozens of houses in two Gaza City neighbourhoods, Sabra and Sheikh Radwan.

Where is Trump?

“Where is Trump in all of this?” said Rami Mohammad-Ali, 37, from Gaza City, now displaced in the city’s western side, near the beach. “The explosions don’t stop, the drones drop bombs everywhere, as if nothing has happened. Where is the truce Trump told us about?” he asked.

Local health authorities said at least one Palestinian was killed, and several others were wounded in those attacks. Three other people were killed in separate Israeli strikes across the enclave, medics said.

Amjad Al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, which liaises with the United Nations and international humanitarian organisations, said Gaza City has begun experiencing acute shortages of food and fuel, days after Israel blocked the route from the south to the north.

“We are speaking about tens of thousands of children who suffer malnutrition, elderly who need extra care, those are in danger now because of the Israeli occupation blockade of Gaza City and the escalation of the attacks,” Mr. Shawa told Reuters.

Under Mr. Trump’s plan, all Israeli hostages, alive and deceased, were due to be released within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting the agreement.

But it was not clear at what precise point the clock on that 72-hour deadline would start ticking, given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to the timeline several days before Hamas responded. Israel says 48 hostages remain, 20 of whom are alive.

There may be logistical challenges too. Sources close to Hamas told Reuters that handing over living hostages could prove relatively straightforward, but retrieving bodies of dead ones amid the huge devastation and rubble of Gaza may take longer than a few days to achieve.

Mr. Trump said on Friday (October 3, 2025) he believed Hamas had shown it was “ready for a lasting PEACE” and he called on Mr. Netanyahu’s Government to halt airstrikes in Gaza.

Domestically, Mr. Netanyahu is caught between growing pressure to end the war — from hostage families and a war-weary public — and demands from hardline members of his coalition who insist there must be no let-up in Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that halting attacks on Gaza was a “grave mistake”.

Mr. Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, also a hardliner, have significant influence in Netanyahu’s Government and have threatened to bring it down if the Gaza war ends.

Israel began attacking Gaza after the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s campaign has killed more than 67,000 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities, and decimated the enclave.

Published – October 05, 2025 03:20 pm IST

In August, as part of a group of 500 scientists and academics, we petitioned the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) regarding Israel’s participation. The IOAA, held in Mumbai from 11-21 August with 63 countries participating, is one of the major science Olympiads designed to identify talented high-school students. The Olympiads are a matter of significant national prestige in Israel and the government showcases the performance of its teams as evidence of scientific progress.

Our petition proposed that Israel be suspended as a national team, which would require students and team leaders to participate as individuals and without an official Israeli flag. Our goal was to convey disapproval of Israeli policies and reduce the Olympiad’s propaganda value for the Israeli government, while having as little impact as possible on the students themselves. Similar sanctions have been applied to Israel in the Informatics Olympiad and to Russia and Belarus in several Olympiads and the Olympic games.

The IOAA is governed by an autonomous international board with 120 members and representatives from every participating country. The board, which had already discussed this issue last year, considered our petition, together with other evidence including testimony from the Palestinian delegation on the deleterious impact of Israeli policies on Palestinian students. After extensive discussion, it approved the proposal with an overwhelming majority. Since Israel did not send a team this year, the board’s decision will be effective from next year should Israel choose to participate.

Rift among Indian academics

The Israeli embassy reacted furiously. Consul General Kobbi Shoshani suggested that the Olympiad “change Albert Einstein’s relativity theory” to “Hamas’ political theories”. More troublingly, 300 Indian academics — among them directors of two IITs and vice chancellors of several universities — asked the Prime Minister’s Office to take “strict and appropriate action” against seven signatories of the original petition, including the two of us, and the President of IOAA. Their complaint claimed that the scientists’ petition had “completely overshadowed and sidetracked our efforts at becoming Vishwaguru”.

This complaint is puzzling since the decision was taken by the IOAA’s board and not by the signatories, none of whom are members of the board. The IOAA’s President had no involvement with the petition, beyond relaying it to the board, as he was duty bound to do. Moreover, the PMO has no role to play and the IOAA has clarified that its “board is an international body founded on democratic principles, and deliberations in its meetings are independent of the host country”. Nevertheless, this controversy should prompt us to think about the responsibility of Indian academics in the face of the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

10% of population erased

Israel has killed more than 63,000 people in Gaza since 2023. Leaked data indicates that the Israeli military itself estimates that 83% of its victims were civilians. Israel has destroyed or damaged more than 90% of schools in Gaza and the World Health Organization estimates that it has damaged 94% of Gaza’s hospitals. In July 2024, experts writing for The Lancet estimated that the breakdown of civic systems and food shortages could lead to more than three additional deaths for every direct victim. This implies that Israel’s campaign might have caused the deaths of more than 10% of Gaza’s population of 2 million people.

The UN has officially declared a famine in Gaza, with the UN Secretary General calling it a “man-made disaster”. The UN Under-Secretary General, Tom Fletcher, pointed out that this is a “famine within a few hundred metres of food” where “food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel.”

Israel’s supporters sometimes argue that its continued campaign is necessary to ensure its security in the aftermath of the attack of 7 October 2023. But former Israeli security chiefs undercut this justification in August 2025 by calling on their government to end the war. This echoes calls made by families of the remaining hostages in Gaza, who have been frustrated by the Israeli government’s refusal to strike a deal to secure their release.

The Israeli minister, Amichay Eliyahu, provided a frank explanation for Israeli policy in July, declaring that the government was “rushing toward Gaza being wiped out.” This continues a tradition of dehumanization of Palestinians and a refusal to recognise their right to their own lands that has been a central element of Israeli polity since 1948, when 750,000 Palestinians were displaced to make way for the founding of Israel, in what Palestinians called the ‘Nakba’.

Einstein and other Jewish leaders described a particularly gruesome event from the Nakba in a letter to the New York Times: “terrorist bands attacked [the] peaceful village” of Deir Yassin, “killed most of its inhabitants … and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives.” This letter was written to denounce Menachem Begin who was one of the leaders of these violent groups and went on to become the Prime Minister of Israel in 1977. Begin founded the Likud party that continues to rule Israel today.

It makes no sense to pretend that science and cultural events can go on as usual, in the face of the historic crimes unfolding in Gaza. It is our duty, as academics and scientists, to do everything in our power to put pressure on the Israeli government to change its policy.

It is distressing that some of our colleagues have instead chosen to disregard or defend Israel’s actions. The responses we find on social media are even more troubling since some people in India refuse to recognise the rights of Palestinians to live with dignity and freedom, merely because of their religion.

Therefore, the debate over the scientists’ petition to the IOAA should be viewed as part of a broader struggle for communal harmony and academic freedom within India. We are proud that so many Indian academics signed this petition. It shows that many of us still stand for democratic rights and with India’s anti-colonial traditions.

Suvrat Raju is a theoretical physicist with the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (Bengaluru) and Alok Laddha is a theoretical physicist with the Chennai Mathematical Institute. The views expressed are personal and do not reflect the views of their institutions.

Published – September 10, 2025 01:45 am IST

People take part in a protest demanding the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas and calling for the end of the war in the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
| Photo Credit: Leo Correa

A person shows the blood-stained camera that freelance journalist Mariam Dagga, 33, was carrying when she was killed in a double Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on August 25, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

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A militant stands next to the coffins containing the bodies of hostages, from right to left, Shiri Bibas, her two children, Ariel and Kfir and Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted, before they are handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on February 20, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

Hamas on Thursday (February 20, 2025) released the bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children who have long been feared dead and had come to embody the nation’s agony following the October 7, 2023, attack.

The remains were presumed to be of Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, as well as Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted. Kfir, who was 9 months old when he was taken, was the youngest captive. Hamas has said all four were killed along with their guards in Israeli air strikes.

“Our hearts — the hearts of an entire nation — lie in tatters,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a statement. “On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely.”

The militants displayed four black coffins on a stage in the Gaza Strip surrounded by banners, including a large one depicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a vampire. Thousands of people, including large numbers of masked and armed militants, looked on as the coffins were loaded onto Red Cross vehicles before being driven to Israeli forces.

The military held a small funeral ceremony, at the request of the families, before transferring the bodies to a laboratory in Israel for formal identification using DNA, a process that could take up to two days.

Israelis have celebrated the return of 24 living hostages in recent weeks under a tenuous ceasefire that paused over 15 months of war. But the handover on Thursday was a grim reminder of those who died in captivity.

Hamas is set to free six living hostages on Saturday in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and says it will release four more bodies next week, completing the ceasefire’s first phase. That will leave the militants with some 60 hostages, all men, around half of whom are believed to be dead.