UN Aid Chief Admits Starving Gazan Baby Claim Was Amid ‘Desperation’ To Let Aid In

In a BBC interview on Friday, United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher walked back a previous assertion that 14,000 infants in Gaza might perish within 48 hours if aid didn’t reach them—a statement the UN later officially rescinded.

Fletcher conceded that the original comments lacked the necessary precision. “We were desperately trying to get that aid in,” he explained, acknowledging the urgency of the situation at the time.

“We were being told we couldn’t get it in, and we knew that we’d probably have a couple of days, a window to get as much aid in as possible, and that was being denied, and we were desperate to get that in. And so yes, we’ve got to be utterly precise with our language, and we’ve clarified that,” Fletcher said.

After disavowing Fletcher’s initial claim, the UN referred to a separate report projecting that from April 2025 through March 2026, as many as 14,100 children in Gaza could suffer from malnutrition—a significantly different timeline from the two-day warning previously issued.

The BBC also asked Fletcher to address his claim that “10,000 aid trucks on the Gaza border, cleared and ready to go” had been blocked, a figure denied by Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). In response, Fletcher acknowledged the need for more exactness in public statements, saying he “especially needed to be careful and really precise.”

Despite issuing clarifications and corrections, Fletcher continued to accuse Israel of deliberate starvation tactics against Gaza civilians. “It is classified as a war crime. Obviously, these are issues for the courts to take the judgement on, and ultimately for history to take a judgement on,” he told the BBC.

While the UN has distanced itself from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the group announced on Thursday the launch of its third aid distribution site within Gaza.

GHF reported that it distributed approximately 997,920 meals on Thursday alone, raising the cumulative total to about 1,838,182 meals, delivered in around 17,280 aid packages.

Fletcher also condemned the Israeli government for allegedly blocking food from entering Gaza. “We’re seeing food set on the borders and not being allowed in when there is a population on the other side of the border that is starving, and we’re hearing Israeli ministers say that is to put pressure on the population of Gaza,” he said, urging Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to “absolutely” repudiate such rhetoric.

Calling for international accountability, Fletcher said, “We would expect governments all over the world to stand for international humanitarian law, the international community is very, very clear on that,” and urged Netanyahu to put a stop to “this language, and ultimately, this policy… of forced displacement.”

{Matzav.com}