UN quietly walks back claim that 14,000 Gazan babies on verge of starving to death

After a senior official claimed publicly that 14,000 babies in Gaza are days away from starving to death, the United Nations quietly acknowledged that their own sources do not support that claim.

By World Israel News Staff

The United Nations has quietly walked back a claim made by one of its senior officials this week, after he apparently misquoted a UN agency report, leading to a misleading portrayal of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Tom Fletcher, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator and chief of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), spoke with the UK’s BBC Radio 4 Today following Israel’s decision to permit aid transfers to the Gaza Strip.

Fletcher lambasted the pace of aid transfers, accusing Israel of hamstringing efforts by UN agencies to deliver goods to the Gaza Strip.

“There are five trucks just sitting on the other side of the border right now, they’ve not reached the communities they need to reach,” Fletcher said

The British diplomat and OCHA chief then warned that unless Israel’s restrictions on the entry of goods into Gaza is lifted, 14,000 Gazan babies are in immediate danger of starvation and death.

“This is baby food, baby nutrition. There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them. This is not food that Hamas is gonna steal.”

Fletcher’s claim raised questions regarding the basis for his figures, with which amount to close to a quarter of all infants under the age of one in the Gaza Strip.

Anna Foster, the host, called Fletcher’s claim of 14,000 infant fatalities in two days an “extraordinary figure.”

“It is utterly chilling,” Fletcher responded.

However, after the interview, skepticism over Fletcher’s claim sparked criticism of OCHA online.

OCHA later responded to the criticism by walking back Fletcher’s comments in a statement to the BBC.

The UN agency clarified that, in fact, the report referenced by Fletcher as a source for the figure of 14,000 babies was actually referring to estimates of acute malnutrition over the course of a year among young children, not deaths among infants over two days.

“We are pointing to the imperative of getting supplies in to save an estimated 14,000 babies suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Gaza, as the IPC partnership has warned about,” OCHA told the BBC.

“We need to get the supplies in as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours.”

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report warns that should no major changes occur regarding aid to Gaza, as many as 14,100 children ages 6 to 59 months could suffer the effects of acute malnutrition.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the resumption of aid transfers to Gaza this week, with nine trucks of aid crossing into Gaza on Monday.

On Tuesday, 93 aid trucks entered the coastal enclave.

The aid is being delivered to Gaza with no mechanism to ensure the goods are not seized by Hamas terrorists, as occurred with past aid transfers.

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