A Canadian helped build a water plant in Gaza. Now he worries about its fate as aid groups leave over new law

At the Doctors Without Borders water plant tent in central Gaza, Craig Kenzie carefully watches the machine he helped put together roar with life. 

After two years of war and limited access to water, this machine built mostly using scrap parts now provides tens of thousands of litres of clean water for the community.  

While the Vancouverite has been in Gaza since mid-December working as a project co-ordinator building a water treatment plant, Kenzie worries now about who will oversee what his group has done to help Palestinians as he and foreign workers for other aid organizations find themselves leaving the territory.

Doctors without Borders (MSF) and 36 other international non-governmental organizations (INGO) will cease operations in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.

The INGOs were asked to provide lists of their local and foreign staff. Many refused, citing the protection of the safety and security of the staff. Their visas to work in Gaza have expired. 

“We’re highly concerned about the consequences for the Gazan population […] when over half the international humanitarian organizations will get expelled from the Gaza Strip,” Kenzie told CBC’s freelance videographer Mohamed ElSaife. 

“These new restrictions are more than we’ve ever had to deal with and bring up immense concerns for the safety and security of our staff.” 

Kenzie, who was among the last to leave Gaza Thursday, said MSF’s activities are “an essential part of the Gazan health-care system.” 

“We have yet to be able to find someone who can take over the 1,500 staff that we have, the 2,200 consultations we do a day and the four and a half million litres of water that we produce and distribute on a daily basis.”

Relying on local staff

MSF said in release Thursday that it would rely on local staff and their registration with the Palestinian Authority to try to keep any programs running.

Christopher Lockyear, MSF’s secretary seneral, said without foreign staff and foreign journalists on the ground in Gaza, much of the reality of what Palestinians in the Strip face will go untold.

“Reducing NGO access risks removing yet another layer of witnesses to the ongoing violence and its enduring impacts on people,” he wrote.

Since the beginning of the ceasefire in October, 600 trucks were to be allowed into the Gaza strip on a daily basis. 

An analysis by The Associated Press, however, found that aid delivery was “falling short” of what was promised during negotiations of the ceasefire. 

In a report by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs posted last week, it said that between Feb. 12 and 19, the UN co-ordinated 67 humanitarian missions with Israel inside Gaza. Of them, “nine were denied outright, 42 were facilitated and nine were approved but faced impediments.” 

Kenzie said the new restrictions are “beyond what we can accept.” 

“We already vet our staff to make sure they’re not part of any armed group […] this additional layer to submit all those names is beyond what is acceptable especially with 1,700 medical staff that have been killed in this conflict so far.” 

The fear is that handing over sensitive information of staff may lead them to be more easily targeted by strikes, the organizations say.

In a post to X, the Co-ordination of Government Affairs in the Territories (COGAT), an Israeli Defence Ministry unit responsible for implementing government policy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, pushed back against claims that INGOs were making regarding their departure. 

In the post, COGAT said their findings from the ground in Gaza show a “significant, stable and continuous flow of aid.” 

It goes on to say that between 600 and 800 aid trucks enter Gaza daily and “more than 20 international organizations operate lawfully and in full co-ordination with Israel.” 

It said INGOs’ aid contributions “accounted for only one per cent of the total aid entering the Strip.” 

Regarding the staff lists, the post said that the request is “a basic and transparent requirement intended to prevent the exploitation of the aid mechanism by Hamas.” 

Alexandra Saieh, head of strategic influencing and police for Save the Children, said the move is part of a “systematic prevention” by Israel to allow INGOs to deliver needed services. 

“The restrictions that are being imposed by the Israeli authorities are unprecedented,” she told CBC News. “We have our own processes to safeguard and protect and ensure that our aid work is independent, impartial and neutral.”

‘Eyes and ears for the world’

Saieh said that in the last two years, “more than 300 aid workers were killed.” 

She says that providing staff lists would expose sensitive information and affect how staff on the ground could talk about what they’re seeing in Gaza. 

“NGOs, humanitarian staff, aid workers, doctors, they’ve been the eyes and ears for the world…. And without those international witnesses, it’s going to impact the level of information that is shared with the public.

“So it’s valid that NGOs have concerns about sharing further details with the Israeli authorities when we’ve seen these sorts of patterns on the ground.” 

Save the Children’s registration for visas for their foreign workers was denied by COGAT last year. Saieh said the organization has relied heavily on their local hires to support the work that needs to be done on the ground.

This week, 31 organizations signed a petition to seek an injunction from Israel’s Supreme Court on the expiration of visas of their staff in Gaza. The injunction — filed by 17 INGOs — went to a court hearing on Wednesday, but the results of the hearing have yet to be disclosed. 

For Kenzie, though, the hearing came too late. He and his colleagues made their way out of Gaza on Thursday morning. He said he’s had difficulty seeing the “relative indifference” from the international community towards what’s taking place in Gaza.

“Being here as a Canadian, I really realize just how privileged we are in Canada,” he said. 

“This communal punishment of the Gazan population is just something I don’t think I’ll ever be able to understand.”