UN Claims: 14,000 Gaza Babies at Risk Over a Year, Not 48 Hours
The United Nations on Wednesday revised its earlier statement regarding the imminent deaths of 14,000 babies in Gaza due to a lack of humanitarian aid. The initial claim, made by Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, during a BBC interview, suggested these deaths could occur within 48 hours.
Fletcher’s comments gained international attention, even drawing criticism from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert towards the current Israeli government. In the BBC interview on Tuesday, Fletcher stated, “There are five trucks just sitting on the other side of the border right now… This is baby food, baby nutrition. There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them.” When pressed by the British news outlet about the source of this “extraordinary figure,” the UN official responded, “We’ve got strong teams on the ground; they are at the medical centres, the schools, trying to assess needs.”
UN Backtracks on Timeline
Following the widespread attention generated by the interview, other UN officials provided clarification on Fletcher’s statement, appearing to downplay the precise timeframe of the dire consequences. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) later issued a statement to the BBC, clarifying its position.
“We are pointing to the imperative of getting supplies to save an estimated 14,000 babies suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Gaza, as the IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] partnership has warned about. We need to get the supplies in as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours,” the international body clarified.
It is important to note that, according to the IPC report, approximately 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition among children aged 6 to 59 months in Gaza are projected to occur between April 2025 and March 2026. This indicates that the 14,000 children facing malnutrition are expected over a year, not within 48 hours.
In a separate news conference held later on Tuesday, a UNOCHA spokesperson did not cite the 14,000 figure. Instead, the spokesperson stated that if babies who are “in urgent life-saving need of those supplements” do not receive them, they will be “in mortal danger,” as reported by The Jerusalem Post.
Israel Removes Blockade
On May 18, Israeli authorities announced they would permit humanitarian aid to re-enter the Gaza Strip. The nation had previously blocked aid access to Gaza after the initial phase of its ceasefire with Hamas concluded on March 1.
Meanwhile, in the same BBC interview, Fletcher criticized Israel’s proposed humanitarian aid strategy, which involves relocating Gazans to a “Hamas-free area” in southern Gaza to receive assistance. He described this new strategy as a “dodgy modality,” asserting that the previous method of delivering aid to Gaza “works perfectly well.”
“The international community is very clear with us that this is the only way to do it,” Fletcher explained. “To go with the other modality would be to support the objectives of the military offensive.” When questioned if he would transfer aid to the new mechanism, Fletcher responded, “We’ve got to get the aid in ourselves.”
Later on Tuesday, the United Nations confirmed that it had received permission from Israel for approximately 100 additional aid trucks to enter Gaza. According to The Jerusalem Post, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) inspected 93 UN aid trucks, verifying that the humanitarian aid included flour for bakeries, baby food, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs.
The IDF declined to comment on the remarks made by the UN official, stating that the matter fell under the jurisdiction of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories. However, Fletcher’s assertion garnered attention from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Olmert, who served as Israel’s Prime Minister from 2006 to 2009, told the BBC that Israel’s current actions in Gaza are “very close to a war crime,” characterizing the Israel-Hamas conflict as a war “without purpose.” He told the British news outlet, “From every point of view, this is obnoxious and outrageous. We are fighting the killers of Hamas, we are not fighting innocent civilians. And that has to be clear.”