The Israeli humanitarian relief group IsraAid is laying off approximately 20% of the employees at its Tel Aviv headquarters and is shuttering two of its 11 international missions, in light of financial shortfalls, sources connected to the organization have told eJewishPhilanthropy. A spokesperson for IsraAid confirmed the cuts, saying the group “had to take some steps to ensure the stability and sustainability of its operations.”

The IsraAid spokesperson noted the international humanitarian aid field writ large “has faced an up to 45% drop in funding in 2025,” following the shuttering of USAID and other macro trends, “while dealing with increasingly prevalent and increasingly difficult global crises.” He added that IsraAid specifically was dealing with a “unique and challenging position, responding for the first time to humanitarian catastrophe in Israel and Gaza while delivering life-changing programs for vulnerable communities around the world.”

As an organization primarily backed by Jewish donors, whose priorities have shifted in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks to focus more on Israel and combating antisemitism, IsraAid has struggled to raise funds for its international missions. The spokesperson said that the group has raised nearly $20 million for its domestic Israeli programs and more than $10 million for its Gaza response, but that this has “made it harder than ever to secure the flexible and unrestricted funds that are the lifeblood of any nonprofit.” 

As a result of this shortage in unrestricted funds, the spokesperson said IsraAid has been forced to take action: “This entails a painful process of targeted budget reductions, which, sadly, includes a 20% reduction in the size of our headquarters team and will, through the course of 2026, include the gradual phase out and handover of two of our global missions to the local community,” he said. “Like all organizations across the humanitarian sector, we have to prioritize using our funds where they can have the greatest impact. These plans will be communicated first and foremost with IsraAid’s global staff of over 400 people and the communities we serve.”

After operating abroad exclusively for its first 22 years, IsraAid launched its first domestic mission following the Oct. 7 terror attacks, dispatching teams to the hospitals where survivors and displaced people had been moved. Earlier this year, the organization acknowledged that in 2024 it had also started operating in the Gaza Strip, acting as a mediator between international aid groups and the Israeli military and government. 

IsraAid, which launched in 2001, employs nearly 100 people at its Tel Aviv office. The organization would not elaborate on the precise number of people who were being laid off, which specific positions were being cut or on other personnel matters. The spokesperson stressed that the group’s “mission hasn’t changed and isn’t going to change.” 

Even as the group began laying off its headquarters staff this month, the organization has continued to dispatch missions to natural disaster sites around the world. The spokesperson noted on Friday that an IsraAid team was currently en route to Sri Lanka, after the island nation was battered by Cyclone Ditwah, and that it still had a mission operating in Jamaica after it was hit by Hurricane Melissa in October.

On Friday, the organization also launched a “flash appeal” for winter shelter items for Gazan civilians in light of the winter storm, Byron, which has been drenching the eastern Mediterranean all week. “Everything we do is made possible by the generosity of our supporters,” the spokesperson added, calling for additional support.