Hamas on Tuesday called for sanctions against Israel, welcoming a joint condemnation by nearly 20 countries of new Israeli measures aimed at tightening control over the occupied West Bank.

Israel has approved a series of initiatives this month backed by far-right ministers, including launching a process to register land in the West Bank as ‘state property’ and allowing Israelis to purchase land there directly.

Late on Monday, 18 countries including regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and European powers France and Spain, slammed Israel over the recent moves.

They ‘are part of a clear trajectory that aims to change the reality on the ground and to advance unacceptable de facto annexation’, the countries said.

‘Such actions are a deliberate and direct attack on the viability of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two-state solution.’

Hamas hailed the condemnation as ‘a step in the right direction in confronting the occupation’s expansionist plans, which flagrantly violate international law and relevant UN resolutions’.

The group in a statement urged the countries involved ‘to impose deterrent sanctions and exert pressure on the fascist occupation government to halt its policies aimed at entrenching annexation, colonial settlement and forced displacement’.

It said the Israeli measures were part of on-going ‘aggression’ against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 5,00,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

Israel’s current government has accelerated settlement expansion, approving a record 54 settlements in 2025, according to activists.

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, is envisioned as the core of a future Palestinian state, but many on Israel’s religious right view it as part of Israel’s historic homeland.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen international humanitarian organisations have petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to block an imminent order that would force 37 NGOs to cease operations in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, warning of catastrophic consequences for civilians.

Organisations including Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE were notified on December 30, 2025 that their Israeli registrations had expired and that they had 60 days to renew them by providing lists of their Palestinian staff.

If they fail to do so, they will have to cease operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, from March 1.

The petition, described as unprecedented in its scale and joint nature, seeks an urgent interim injunction from Israel’s top court to suspend the closures pending full judicial review.

The 17 petitioners, which include some of the NGOs hit by the ban, argue the Israeli measures are incompatible with an occupying power’s obligations under international humanitarian law.

The NGOs say compliance would expose local employees to potential retaliation, undermine the principle of humanitarian neutrality and violate European data protection law.

‘Turning humanitarian organisations into an information-gathering arm for a party to the conflict stands in total contradiction to the principle of neutrality,’ the petition states.

According to the United Nations, 133 NGO workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war started on October 7, 2023, including 15 MSF employees.

The petitioners say they have proposed practical alternatives to handing over staff lists to Israel, including ‘independent sanctions screening’ and ‘donor-audited vetting systems.’

The organisations say that they collectively support or implement more than half of all food assistance in Gaza, 60 per cent of field hospital operations and all inpatient treatment for children suffering severe acute malnutrition.

The petitioners say enforcement has already begun in practice, with supplies blocked and visas denied to foreign staff.