ICSPR: Israeli Occupation and International Funding Cuts Undermine Humanitarian Organizations in Gaza and Push Towards the Complete Collapse of the Relief System
Date: 3 September 2025
Press Release
ICSPR: Israeli Occupation and International Funding Cuts Undermine Humanitarian Organizations in Gaza and Push Towards the Complete Collapse of the Relief System
Gaza – The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (ICSPR)
The International Commission ICSPR has issued an extensive report entitled “The Inability of Humanitarian Organizations to Carry Out Their Duties”, prepared by researcher Lubna Deeb. The report revealed, with figures and documented data, the unprecedented challenges facing humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, up until August 2025. It stressed that what is happening represents a deliberate collapse of the international humanitarian system as a result of systematic Israeli policies, intentional cuts in international funding, and complicity in perpetuating the ongoing genocide against Palestinians.
The report explained that Israeli authorities deliberately imposed a complete closure of crossings, including the Rafah crossing, whose Palestinian side was demolished in June 2024, effectively paralyzing the entry of aid. Hospitals, schools, and shelters were directly targeted; 38 hospitals and 95% of UNRWA schools were destroyed, while attacks killed more than 3,000 humanitarian workers, including 1,590 medical staff and 283 UNRWA employees.
Israel also imposed complex bureaucratic and security restrictions through the “COGAT” unit, replacing the UN coordination mechanism with the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” under its military supervision. This led to a reduction of aid distribution points from 400 to only 4, turning them into overcrowded areas where civilians were exposed to live fire.
Alongside Israeli obstacles, the report addressed the global funding crisis. The administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump imposed severe cuts on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), freezing hundreds of millions of dollars. This forced aid organizations to spend from their own limited resources and scale down their programs.
Although the U.S. administration in January 2025 approved $383 million in aid to Gaza, reports from relief organizations confirmed that no actual payments were disbursed, while an additional $40 million was deducted due to restrictions on direct cash assistance.
By 16 August 2025, only $912 million out of $4 billion required to meet urgent needs for more than 3.3 million people had been disbursed, with 88% allocated to Gaza. Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced a reduction in its global 2028 plan to $29 billion instead of $44 billion, negatively impacting Gaza-specific priorities.
The report highlighted that these policies resulted in a formal famine in Gaza City and its surroundings, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)—the first declared famine in the Middle East. More than 470,000 people face catastrophic hunger, while cases of child malnutrition increased sixfold between February and July 2025, leading to the deaths of 303 civilians, including 117 children, due to starvation.
In the health sector, over 80% of medical facilities were destroyed or rendered non-functional, while 90% of the population was deprived of safe drinking water. Sewage overflowed into streets and coastal areas. Around 1.9 million people (85% of the Strip’s population) were forcibly displaced under catastrophic conditions, while mortality rates rose sharply due to disease, malnutrition, and lack of medical care.
The report criticized the performance of major humanitarian organizations such as UNRWA and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which limited their role to issuing general statements without taking strong positions, or evacuating from northern areas and abandoning civilians to attacks. This, the report stated, amounted to implicit complicity or a blatant failure to fulfill their mandates.
ICSPR stressed that Israeli-imposed restrictions constitute a blatant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, its Additional Protocols, and UN Security Council Resolutions (1502/2003, 2712/2023, 2720/2023), which obligate the occupying power to facilitate humanitarian access and protect humanitarian personnel. Targeting humanitarian facilities, ICSPR emphasized, constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
ICSPR Calls For:
-
An urgent investigation by the ICC into crimes committed against humanitarian workers.
-
Binding international pressure to reopen crossings immediately and secure the flow of aid.
-
Provision of international protection for organizations and humanitarian workers.
-
Convening an international conference to expose attacks on humanitarian facilities and UNRWA.
-
Obligating the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to respond effectively to calls for medical evacuation and shelter support.
ICSPR affirmed that what is unfolding in Gaza is not merely a procedural failure but a deliberate assault on the global humanitarian system, aiming to starve, displace, and destroy the foundations of life for Palestinians. This takes place amid disgraceful international silence and complicity with the occupation, threatening to reduce humanitarian action to nothing more than a symbolic tool incapable of saving lives.
