More than three dozen humanitarian groups will have their authorizations to operate in the Gaza Strip suspended on Jan. 1 and will have to clear out by March after failing to comply with new registration rules, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said on Tuesday.

Israeli officials say the new rules are meant to prevent militants from infiltrating aid groups, and they require humanitarian groups to submit lists of their Palestinian employees for review, among other information. The organizations that are facing suspension did not provide that material by the end-of-year deadline after operating under a “good-faith extension” since March, the officials said.

Israel’s decision to act against the groups — among them Doctors Without Borders — at a time of humanitarian crisis in Gaza drew objections from the international community. A fragile ceasefire that began in October is still holding, but mass privation and hunger are still prevalent for about 2 million Palestinians after two years of war.

Citing the “restrictive new requirements” of the Israeli government, the foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain on Tuesday called on Israel to ensure that aid groups can “operate in Gaza in a sustained and predictable way.”

“Any attempt to stem their ability to operate is unacceptable,” the foreign ministers wrote in a joint statement, saying that without the contributions of aid groups, “it will be impossible to meet all urgent needs at the scale required.”

Doctors Without Borders said in a statement Tuesday that it had not received any official decision about the registration requirements.

Preventing services into Gaza “will have devastating consequences for Palestinians,” Doctors Without Borders said. The organization said it supports around 20% of all hospital beds in the enclave and the delivery of 1 in 3 babies.

Israeli agencies rejected the contention that Doctors Without Borders and the other aid groups facing suspension were critical to the humanitarian response.

Some of Israel’s most vocal allies approved of the decision to block some organizations from continuing to operate in Gaza. Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, wrote approvingly on social media about the restrictions Tuesday, accusing some of having “terrorists on their payroll.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Ephrat Livni/Saher Alghorra
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