While the licenses of more than 30 international aid agencies in the Palestinian territories have been hanging in the balance since December 2025, the Jerusalem-based team of CNEWA-Pontifical Mission for Palestine has persevered, providing nearly $1.2 million in lifesaving aid in that same period, said Joseph Hazboun, regional director for Palestine and Israel.
The war on Gaza, the rise of extremist settler violence in the occupied West Bank, the subsequent collapse of tourism and the Israeli government’s refusal to release the Palestinian Authority’s share of its tax income has destroyed the Palestinian economy, tripled unemployment and driven families into poverty.
To address some of these issues in the Bethlehem area, CNEWA-Pontifical Mission has worked with local partners on the repair of the kitchen in the convent of the Franciscan Sisters in Aida refugee camp. The refurbished facility now employs local families who cook, package and distribute the meals prepared there for homebound and needy families. Other projects helped create jobs and feed local residents, especially the elderly; cover two months’ worth of operational expenses for the Antonian Charitable Society-Home for the Elderly in Bethlehem; repair the burn unit and provide life-saving surgeries at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza; and procure lab equipment for the Al-Rimal neighborhood clinic of the Near East Council of Churches in Gaza.
In March, as Gaza’s Muslims celebrated Eid-al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, CNEWA-Pontifical Mission provided winter clothing for children.
“To be honest, the Eid clothes brought joy to our children and to us as well,” said Yasmine Sdodi, a parent displaced by two years of war in Gaza. “We truly could not afford to buy them anything.
“Eid was only one day away, and we still could not buy them clothes. But by God’s grace, and thanks to CNEWA-Pontifical Mission support, we were able to get them,” she said.
The needs on the ground have increased since December when Israel revoked the licenses of 37 aid agencies working in the West Bank and Gaza, saying they failed to complete comprehensive documentation about their foreign and Palestinian employees.
On 20 May, Israel’s High Court of Justice rejected a petition by 19 international aid agencies — including Caritas Internationalis, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and the American Friends Service Committee — and said they must comply with the new registration regulations, which would force them to list the passport and personal identification numbers of all foreign and Palestinian employees. The Israeli court said Israel is entitled to ensure that foreign groups are not related to terrorist organizations.
Such regulations violate privacy laws in Canada and the European Union and lawyers for the international aid organizations added they feared Israel would use the information to target its employees.
The European Commission reports 3.6 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank rely on humanitarian aid.