A recent U.N. tweet omitting Israel’s role in facilitating aid shipments into the Gaza Strip was “unfortunate,” while a U.N. report that failed to mention the Lebanese terror group’s ongoing attacks on Israel was not indication of bias, according to the U.N. secretary-general’s spokesman.
JNS asked Stephane Dujarric during a U.N. press briefing about several recent incidents, including a Dec. 20 tweet from the official United Nations account that omitted Israel’s role in facilitating aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.
“It was unfortunate to say the least, and it’s been corrected,” said Dujarric.
“A humanitarian convoy filled with life-saving food has crossed from Jordan into Gaza for the first time since conflict broke out in the Middle East,” the United Nations posted at 11:28 a.m. The tweet omitted Israel, through which the delivery passed between Jordan and Gaza, and which facilitated the delivery.
The United Nations linked to an article from the World Food Programme about the delivery, which also omitted the Jewish state.
Nearly 24 hours later, the United Nations sent out a new tweet: “A humanitarian convoy filled with life-saving food has crossed from Jordan via Israel into Gaza for the first time since conflict broke out.” The old tweet remains live, and the new tweet continues to link to the World Food Programme article.
Also on Dec. 21, the U.N. account publicized a report by the U.N. Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs which stated that 64,000 Lebanese citizens have been displaced by the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. It noted Israeli or unknown strikes into south Lebanon in recent days, together with damage incurred and operational challenges as a result of the hostilities.
The report failed to mention the 80,000 Israelis displaced from the north because of Hezbollah’s indiscriminate attacks. It also failed to mention Hezbollah’s acts of aggression and the damage they have caused.
Dujarric said that the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report focused “on areas in which they are present, in which they work.”
“The U.N., on the humanitarian end, works in areas, in countries that request the U.N.'s humanitarian assistance and OCHA has a presence” in Lebanon, he added. “So, they were talking about where they’re operating.”
JNS was unable to find a single U.N. agency report that has mentioned displaced Israelis, either in the north of Israel due to Hezbollah or in the south as a result of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
Last week, Sarah Douglas, deputy U.N. Women chief of peace and security, scrubbed or deactivated her X and LinkedIn accounts after the NGO UN Watch revealed that she had endorsed 153 anti-Israel posts on X, including some with blatantly political overtones and others accusing Israel of genocide.
“On the issue of the U.N. Women staffer, who used her personal account, I understand U.N. Women is dealing with the issue—that there was a violation of the code of conduct by this individual and it is being dealt with,” Dujarric told JNS.
U.N. Women did not immediately respond to a JNS query about Douglas’s status or a potential timeline for the conclusion of the disciplinary process.
