AID groups petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday in a bid to halt the intended ban by Israel on them working in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Seventeen international aid groups say they want to be allowed to continue to provide their life-saving operations for Palestinians after the Israeli government says their work must end next month.

Overall some 37 aid groups look set to be banned if the plan by Israel’s far-right coalition goes ahead.

The aid groups include Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and the Co-operative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere.

In a joint statement, the aid groups said they were seeking an urgent suspension of the plan and an interim injunction from the court pending a full judicial review of the Israeli order.

Oxfam said the closure of its aid operations in Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territory could have an “immediate” impact.

“In Gaza, families remain dependent on external assistance amid continuing restrictions on aid entry and renewed strikes in densely populated areas.

“In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, military incursions, demolitions, displacement, settlement expansion and settler violence are driving humanitarian needs,” Oxfam said.

The Israelis said on December 30 2025 that the work registrations for the aid groups were deemed to have expired and that they had 60 days to renew which must include the personal details of their Palestinian staff.

The aid groups say turning them “into an information gathering arm for a party to the conflict stands in total contradiction to the principles of neutrality.”

Meanwhile, South Africa’s foreign minister has urged the United Nations to formally recognise the State of Palestine.

Speaking to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Ronald Lamola also said it was time to end “the illegal Israeli occupation and genocidal actions aimed at permanently displacing Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”