Aid groups petition Israel's top court to halt suspension of some NGOs in Gaza

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Dozens of aid groups said they have petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to allow them to keep operating in Gaza, warning of dire consequences if new rules obliging them to name staff force shutdowns.

Thirty-seven international organisations including medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Norwegian Refugee Council would have to shutter their operations within days after Israel ordered them at the end of December to stop work in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within 60 days, unless they meet new rules including providing employee details.

The aid groups say sharing such staff information could pose a safety risk. Hundreds of aid workers have been killed or injured during the war in Gaza.

Israel has previously said the registrations were meant to prevent diversions of aid by Palestinian armed groups. Aid agencies dispute that substantial aid has been diverted.

The Israeli government did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Seventeen NGOs and the Association of International Development Agencies filed a joint legal petition to the Israeli High Court of Justice on Sunday seeking an urgent suspension of the decision, warning of devastating humanitarian consequences if they cannot operate, according to a statement by the groups.

The petition calls for the Israeli government to remove the requirement for aid groups to submit staff names, and to allow deregistered NGOs to keep operating in the interim, Yotam Ben-Hillel, an Israeli attorney who filed the appeal, told reporters via video link.

HUMANITARIAN CONSEQUENCES

Some of the 37 groups ordered to close operate specialised services like field hospitals, aid officials say.

A U.N.-led coordination body warned that those bodies still allowed to operate could meet only a fraction of the required humanitarian response in the devastated Gaza Strip, where homelessness and hunger remain rife.

Anne-Claire Yaeesh from the NGO Humanity and Inclusion said its foreign staff who were meant to provide education on the risks of unexploded ordnance had to leave Gaza last week and that they cannot get new staff because the group is deregistered.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)