UN warns Palestinian children 'defenceless' amid Israeli crackdown on NGOs Submitted by MEE staff on Tue, 06/23/2026 - 19:42 UN says Israeli measures have made it nearly impossible for rights groups to ensure the safety of children and families seeking critical assistance Palestinians look at Israeli soldiers patrolling the market in the Old City of Nablus in the Israeli occupied West Bank on 23 June 2026 (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP) Off Palestinian children are "increasingly unprotected", as Israel forces human rights organisations to cease or curtail work across the occupied Palestinian territories, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child warned on Monday.  The committee condemned Israel's designation of civil society groups as "terrorists". Labelling NGOs as terrorist entities gives Israel legal cover to obstruct humanitarian work, including military raids, travel bans, personal financial sanctions, threats of arrest, destruction of records and, in some cases, "threats of secondary sanctions against partners".  The committee is made up of a body of 18 independent experts that work within the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR). The warning doesn't name any of the organisations they are alluding to, but in 2021 Israel outlawed six major Palestinian NGOs, including Adameer, Al-Haq, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International - Palestine, Union of Agricultural Work Committees and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees.  In January of this year, more than 50 international NGOs operating in occupied Palestine warned that recent registration measures imposed by Israel threatened to halt operations at a time of acute humanitarian need in Gaza.  On 30 December, 37 NGOs received an official notification that their registrations would expire the next day, triggering a two-month period after which they would be required to cease operations in Gaza, as well as the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.