Dozens of stalled Israeli visas seen hindering Gaza aid efforts

Difficulties getting Israeli permission for foreign staff to work in Israel and the Palestinian territories are hampering efforts to get aid into war-shattered Gaza where civilians are facing imminent famine, according to UN data and aid workers.

Six aid workers from the UN and other groups interviewed by Reuters cited delays to visas as an example of red tape they say is thwarting aid to Gaza, nearly six months into Israel's offensive against Hamas militants.

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An Israeli official who asked for anonymity as the official was not authorised to speak publicly cited high demand as a challenge, and also raised question marks about some groups' objectives, saying some aid workers "have designs that are not humanitarian."

UN data shared with Reuters showed that 45 visa requests are pending, more than half of which have been on hold for over two months, and several stalled since at least November.

A further 20 UN requests pending since late 2023 have been completely dropped due to the delays. The affected missions were either abandoned or postponed, said the UN source who shared the data and asked not to be identified, fearing repercussions.

"This is slowing down the Gaza response at a time when we need to scale up and have more manpower to handle operations," said the UN source.

The list showed the hold-ups were affecting 11 UN agencies with 18 visas pending for UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA; six for the World Food Program; six with the UN children's agency; and two with the World Health Organization.




Reuters