Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, corrected the record on May 20 after Tom Fletcher, the U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told the BBC that, without aid, 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in the next 48 hours. Fletcher doubled down on the claim in a CNN interview on May 22, which also aired over the weekend.
“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 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership has warned about,” Laerke told the BBC. “We need to get the supplies in as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours.”
The British broadcaster reported that “in some analysis released earlier this month, the IPC estimated that nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be ‘acutely malnourished’ over the next 11 months, of which ‘14,100 cases are expected to be severe.’”
National media outlets picked up Fletcher’s claim, which was cited in parliamentary debates in the United Kingdom and global diplomatic discussions.
After initially posting “Around 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if many more aid trucks do not reach Gaza, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief says,” NBC News deleted the post. “This story has been updated to reflect that the United Nations now says 14,000 babies face severe malnutrition if a lot more aid trucks don’t reach Gaza soon,” it stated. “U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher had said earlier that 14,000 babies could die in the next 48 hours if more aid wasn’t delivered.”
“A U.N. official lied to the world about 14,000 babies going to die in 48 hours in Gaza. This lie spread like wildfire despite being immediately debunked. It was recklessly pushed by numerous mainstream media channels, posted by major influencers like Glennon Doyle, repeated by 13 MPs in the British Parliament,” wrote John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, which is part of the U.S. Military Academy, in New York.
“There should be naming and accountability for the United Nations and the pushers of misinformation,” Spencer added. “The lie was even pushed in a news conference by the neighbor of the killer of two Israeli embassy staff members this week. Words have consequences.”
JNS asked Laerke, of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, if Fletcher or his office had issued a correction or planned to do so. The U.N. spokesman stated that “Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is catastrophic. With every single person in Gaza at risk of famine, it is imperative to get supplies into Gaza as soon as possible so we can save lives.”
“We do not have a second to waste,” Laerke told JNS. (JNS asked again if Fletcher or his office planned to issue a correction.)
Christiane Amanpour, the CNN chief international anchor, asked Fletcher about the “matter of dispute between various sides” on food insecurity in Gaza during an episode of her show, which first aired on May 22 and also ran on CNN and drew fresh attention over the weekend.
“You said the other day that, you know, some 14,000 kids could be at risk, and you had a timeline on it, then there was a whole lot of pushback,” Amanpour told Fletcher, swapping “at risk” for Fletcher’s words “will die in the next 48 hours.”
“How careful do you have to be with your facts and your language, even though you’re describing a situation that we know exists, to get it right, and how much do you still stand by those figures?” the anchor asked.
‘Keeping us awake at night’
Fletcher encouraged people to read the IPC report without correcting his misstatement.
“The figure of 14,000 kids at such great risk was taken from that—it’s actually 71,000—who face severe hunger and 14,000 who face acute hunger,” he told Amanpour. “Part of the argument is over their age, and I describe them as ‘babies’ and in the report, they’re between naught and 5 years old. I think we just have to focus on the fact that these kids need to get fed. That’s what’s keeping us awake at night.”
Fletcher also told Amanpour that he has 10,000 trucks cleared and ready to go on the border, waiting to go in and save lives. That claim also appeared unsubstantiated.
“He is now spreading yet another falsehood—that 10,000 aid trucks are waiting outside Gaza,” Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, stated on Tuesday. “The United Nations must stop platforming representatives who consistently lie and abuse their positions to incite against Israel.”
“There are no 10,000 trucks waiting to go into Gaza. What there are are hundreds of trucks’ worth of aid the United Nations hasn’t picked up from the Gazan side over the last few days, after we gave you plenty of routes you can use to safely distribute the aid throughout the entire Gaza,” said the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which administers the Israeli government’s civilian affairs in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria
JNS asked Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, during a Tuesday press briefing about Fletcher’s comments.
“I would encourage you all to watch his answer to Christiane Amanpour on CNN, which I think clarified the intent of what he was saying,” Dujarric told JNS. “What remains the headline, and what remains a true fact, is that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic.”
“On the issue of the trucks, my understanding is that there’s enough material to fill about 10,000 trucks,” Dujarric told JNS. “I can tell you that the secretary-general has full confidence in Mr. Fletcher and the work that he’s doing.”
“Since the beginning of the war, the United Nations has been a central player in promoting disinformation in the media that it refuses to change even when its statements and claims have been thoroughly discredited,” Anne Herzberg, legal adviser at NGO Monitor, told JNS.
Herzberg noted that the global body underreported the amount of aid that entered Gaza last year by a significant margin, “leading to hysteria among member states about ‘famine’ and ‘starvation.’”
Despite public claims last year by a pair of high-ranking U.N. officials, including Fletcher’s predecessor, that famine was occurring in Gaza, no relevant U.N. agency would confirm to JNS in March that there had been an active famine in the Strip.
The chief economist for the World Food Programme admitted to JNS in June 2024 that the data necessary to determine whether a famine was occurring didn’t exist.
“Whether it is classified as a famine or not—is declared as a famine or not—is not the point,” Arif Husain told JNS at the time, as U.N. officials claimed there was famine.
“It is not enough to say, ‘OK, yeah, there is a famine, now that’s that.’ We must act and continue to act to avert a famine,” he added.
Herzberg told JNS that the “misleading presentation of data is deliberately done to maximize demonization of Israel and to generate sympathy that will lead to more and more cash to pour into humanitarian aid coffers.”
“This chronic politicization of data by the United Nations has led to highly destructive policies that have destroyed the lives of millions and is one of the primary reasons the region is in crisis,” she said.