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For months, the humanitarian agent felt a penetrating “sense of anger”: until the first half of 2025, she had worked in Jerusalem performing rights defense actions regarding Gaza and Palestinian territories occupied for a large US -based humanitarian organization.
It was common to spend weeks fighting to be able to publish a single statement, he told DW. The leadership of the organization insisted on softening language, considering words such as “occupation”, “block” and “responsibility” very problematic. She felt “that she was participating in the covering of the situation in Gaza” – who had essentially “asked him to lie.”
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“The only way to describe what was happening in Gaza was using extremely diluted language to minimize the role of Israel,” he said.
Over the course of several months, DW’s investigative journalism team has talked to 19 people involved in international organizations that provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians. All humanitarian workers interviewed by DW, except one, asked to remain anonymous, fearing for their jobs.
DW analyzed internal emails, messages and guidelines, and corroborated workers’ reports by analyzing organizations, explanatory pages, and more than 100 statements published before and after Israel implement a new process to record NGOs in March.
DW found that in recent months, several NGOs have restricted their language in public communications about the war that Israel launched in Gaza after the Hamas attacks that killed almost 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. Some prominent humanitarian aid groups avoided even with the Israeli War in Gaza, including 19,000 people, including 19,000, including 19,000 people, including 19,000. children, and led to mass displacements and widespread hunger.
The reason seems to have been a new registration process approved by the Israeli authorities at the end of 2024. Organizations were informed that they would have to register again until the beginning of September 2025 if they wanted to continue operating in Gaza and the West Bank. This had an almost immediate “intimidating effect” throughout the industry, a former humanitarian agent told DW.
“Dangerous precedent”
Organizations should now provide the confidential data, such as personal information of all their Palestinian employees – including those working in Gaza. Many NGOs fear that this can put their employees in the Palestinian territories at even greater risk.
Regulations allow authorities to deny licenses to organizations supporting lawsuits against Israeli soldiers in international courts or employ individuals who have been supported by Israel in the last seven years.
In mid -August, 100 international organizations condemned the registration process, stating that their goal was to block impartial aid, silence the defense of causes, and censor humanitarian reports.
“This creates a dangerous precedent,” said Shaina Low, who works as a communication advisor to Palestine on the Norwegian Council for refugees, one of the few organizations that continue to openly manifesting on Gaza. Low was the only humanitarian worker willing to speak publicly about the subject.
Faced with the concerns of organizations, the Ministry of Affairs and Anti -Semitism of Israel, which supervises the registration process, told DW in a written statement that the government “supports genuine humanitarian activities, but will not allow hostile actors to operate under humanitarian pretext.”
“Low visibility” after registration announcement
The humanitarian sector immediately responded to regulations, a source told DW. According to her, the management stated that her organization would “reduce her visibility.” This meant: “No more references to the International Criminal Court, no more references to the International Court of Justice, almost no reference to international humanitarian law.”
The words and terms prohibited in public messages vary for each institution. Two large international organizations that are particularly cautious about their language are action against hunger (ACF) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), based in the United States, as DW.
DW analyzed the public messages of organizations about Gaza and the West Bank and revised the statements issued from October 2023 to July 2025.
In October 2023, the IRC warned that the population of Gaza was under “siege”. The organization used similar terms in later statements. After the announcement of the new registration process, the IRC did not use the word again.
The IRC did not respond to DW’s comment request until the publication of this report.
Another example involves reports of violations of humanitarian international law, or the set of principles and rules for participants in armed conflicts. In October 2023, the ACF published a statement condemning “the deliberate and disproportionate attacks against civilians as unacceptable and a violation of international humanitarian law” after the escalation of violence in Israel and Gaza.
The organization continued to denounce violations of international humanitarian law in statements. Following the announcement of the new registration policy, however, the ACF ceased to mention specific acts as violations of international humanitarian law.
Confronted with DW’s conclusions, the ACF stated in a written statement that “the most important thing is to ensure continuity of operations, access to vulnerable populations and dedication to humanitarian principles. Action against hunger continues to appeal to immediate and permanent ceasefog, respect for international humanitarian law, without obstacles, the release of hostages and the protection of civilians and workers and workers humanitarian ”.
Restricted operations
One source said a high leadership repeatedly communicated at meetings that maintaining operations was critical. “To what I always answered: what operations?” She said.
Since the beginning of the war, Israel has restricted the flow of aid to Gaza, sometimes with total blockade. Then, in May this year, it introduced a new help distribution program that excludes established humanitarian organizations.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), based in the United States, has taken over the help. GHF operates only four distribution points – forcing Palestinians to walk for hours to access food.
According to the United Nations, more than 800 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and other security agents hired near GHF locations. Many others were injured.
In a written statement, GHF told DW that “these accusations are false and exaggerated and come directly from the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, which unfortunately continues to be repeated by the media without verification.”
Risk of having access
Faced with GHF’s nearly monopoly in the distribution of humanitarian aid and the new NGO registration process by Israel, humanitarian workers said they were forced to make a difficult decision: to speak openly and risk having denied access to the needy – or restricting their language and eventually expecting power to deliver help to the Palestinians.
“You have two options, and both are wrong,” said a humanitarian worker. She believes that someday, “people will want to have spoken more and will want to have spoken early.” It wasn’t your job to do everything you could “to prevent something so horrible as that?” He asks.
With the self -censorship of organizations while war continues, the efforts and experiences of humanitarian workers often seem to be in conflict with the political priorities of the NGOs that employ them – to the detriment of civilians in Gaza.
“If we can’t talk about what survival is for people in Gaza,” he said, “then we’re painting a completely different reality.”
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