Baghdad: The Israeli government implemented strict new rules on aid organizations working to assist Palestinians on Saturday:

According to National Iraqi News Agency, the new Israeli regulations are part of a broader effort to reduce the space for humanitarian organizations to operate. The new rules cover visas and registration for humanitarian organizations in the Palestinian territories.

The regulations involve checking whether aid organizations or their employees have called for a boycott of Israel, as well as reviewing whether aid organizations or their employees have denied the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

For their part, aid organizations said, "The new Israeli restrictions undermine our efforts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," expressing particular concern about the requirement to provide the names and ID numbers of their Palestinian employees.