As humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip struggles to trickle in, the Qatari Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, January 6, said that negotiations are underway to open the Rafah crossing into the besieged area.
Speaking to the media, spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said that communications are ongoing .”We are working with them to ensure we reach the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire. We demanded that humanitarian aid not be used as a form of political blackmail,” Al-Ansari said.
One of the demands tabled in the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire was the immediate reopening of Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt, which would enable the flow of relief materials to Palestinians.
However, since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 2025, humanitarian groups say that Israel continues to hamper their operations, a clear violation of the US-brokered agreement.
The Rafah crossing is the only border of Gaza not controlled by Israel before the war. It has been closed since May 2024, when Israel took control of the Gaza side. A fully reopened crossing would make it easier for Gazans to seek medical treatment, travel or visit family in Egypt, home to tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Throughout the war, Israel has restricted aid to Gaza, sometimes halting it.
Deteriorating humanitarian situation
With the Strip facing harsh winter conditions, civilians in Gaza are facing heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping. As many as 1.3 million people still require urgent humanitarian support. More than half of health facilities are only partially functional and face shortages of essential medical equipment and supplies, the Foreign Ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom said in a statement on December 30, 2025, calling the situation “catastrophic.”
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are struggling in makeshift tents damaged by rain, wind and seawater waves or damaged buildings at risk of collapse, which is worsening the situation, said United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
While civilians face winter, Israel’s airstrikes, shelling and gunfire continue to be reported nearly every day across the Gaza Strip, resulting in several casualties.
Aid groups banned from working in Gaza
Israel said on January 1 that new regulations banning access of dozens of aid organisations to Gaza and the West Bank had come into force, despite calls by UN agencies and international humanitarian groups to halt the move.
Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli said organisations had been given 10 months to submit detailed information about their staff. Groups that have failed to meet the new requirements “had their licenses revoked,” he said.
An Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a review by the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs identified 37 organisations that did not comply with the new regulations, Xinhua news agency reported. Israel says the rules are intended to bar organisations it alleges have supported militant activity from operating in the Palestinian territories.
Doctors Without Borders, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam and Medical Aid for Palestinians are among the humanitarian organisations barred from operating in the Strip for failing to comply with new registration rules, a move that aid workers said will harm a civilian population desperately in need of humanitarian aid.
Israel says the rules are aimed at preventing Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating the aid organisations. But the organisations say the new rules, announced by Israel early this year, are arbitrary.
For instance, the new regulations include ideological requirements — including disqualifying organisations that have called for boycotts against Israel, denied the October 7 attack or expressed support for any of the international court cases against Israeli soldiers or leaders.
Death toll
The Palestinian death toll has risen to 71,391, while 1,71,264 have been injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, since the start of Israel’s military operations on October 7, 2023. Since the first phase of the ceasefire, as many as 424 Palestinians have died and 1,199 others have been injured.
