We’ve all heard of Ali Baba’s 40 thieves, of the 76 trombones, of the 101 Dalmatians, of the onze mille verges for onze mille vierges. And now, to this listicle of significant numbers, we can add the truly mythomaniacal claim by UN official Tom Fletcher, that if Israel did not immediately send vast amounts of aid into Gaza then “14,000 babies would die within 48 hours.” A lie both absurd and malevolent from Fletcher, whose anti-Israel animus caused him to go off the deep end. But even after the lie was exposed, the BCC, who shares that animus, continued to carry the story without correction.
Robert Spencer wrote about this briefly here, and more on the whole contretemps can be found here: “Cross-platform promotion of UN disinformation by the BBC,” by Hadar Sela, CAMERA, May 22, 2025:
The May 20th edition of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme included news bulletins and items relating to a statement “on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank” put out by the UK, France and Canada.
At 1:09:45 listeners heard presenter Nick Robinson interview a dentist in the Gaza Strip, followed by a conversation with the BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen and comments from Robinson on the topic of ‘genocide’.
At 2:10:24 listeners heard presenter Anna Foster introduce another long item on the same topic which included a nearly nine-minute-long interview with UN OCHA’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher. Notably, listeners were not provided with any information about the record and activities of that UN body.
Early on in that interview (from 2:13:36), listeners heard the following from Fletcher:
Fletcher: “Let me describe what is on those trucks. 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 are gonna steal.”
He’s wrong. Hamas will steal anything it can. If it’s baby food, it will take it for its members’ babies, and for other babies belonging to the extended families of those Hamas operatives. And some of that baby food — assuming Fletcher is correct about what is on the aid trucks — Hamas will steal in order to sell it, at exorbitant prices, to ordinary Gazans, the very people for whom that aid was meant to be given for free.
Fletcher: “I want to save as many of these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours.”
Foster: “14,000 babies in 48 hours is an extraordinary figure.”
Fletcher: “It’s chilling. It’s utterly chilling. But this is what we do. We keep going.”
Although BBC audiences had not been provided with any information to support the assertion that 14,000 babies were going to die within 48 hours, the BBC chose to post that claim on its website and promote it on social media a couple of hours later….
Two days on, that inaccurate claim has still not been removed…
Tim Davie is the Director-General of the BBC. He ought to fire every BBC employee who was involved in broadcasting Tim Fletcher’s “14,000 dead babies” story without any due diligence as to Fletcher’s sources, and fire as well those BBC employees responsible for keeping the story up on multiple platforms for two days after Fletcher’s story had been exposed as malevolent nonsense. The BBC — with such reporters as John Simpson, Jeremy Bowen, Lyse Doucet, Barbara Plett Usher, and Yolande Knell — has been maligning Israel for years. The anti-Israel and, let’s face it, antisemitic Augean Stables need to be cleaned out. It will be a Herculean task. Start with Tim Fletcher’s slander of Israel, and those who put it on, and those who kept it on, every possible platform of the BBC.
Rick Gordon says
Clearly, Winston Churchill must be rolling over in his grave/crypt. What has become of the British government, the BBC (and Guardian), as well as the UN hackers must be inconceivable for this lion who gave his all to save the country in the 1930s/40s.
I imagine it is not a practice, but I don’t understand why the British Royals do not make a statement condemning such atrocities,
James Lincoln says
Rick Gordon,
The British Royals will say nothing against islam until Buckingham Palace is turned into a mosque.
carpediadem says
Churchill? Are you kidding?
he is the one who instituted the White Paper stopping Jewish immigration into thenPalestine during WW2. This caused many deaths in the Holocaust.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
No, you are wrong. Churchill thundered against the White Paper.
loek says
Hi Hugh and Carpediadem,
I am really interested in this discussion between the 2 of you.
Who is right?
mike says
Islam can traffic these 14,000 babies instead of the worlds
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Honestly, even if there were 14,000 Gazan babies at risk, I don’t care! After October 7th, forget Hamas, even Gazans confiscated their right to be recognized as human, given their own roles in the abduction of the Israeli civilians, even if they themselves were not members of Hamas
Honestly, Israel is dragging this out too long. Just carpet-bomb Gaza, massacre everybody & move in! Clear the place, and then make it whatever they need – Jewish settlements, beachfront property, anything else they like
alberto gorin says
this . Just carpet-bomb Gaza, on israel national radio with tamar yonah time was with windows xp and vista I screamed this on the radio and I believe was under oslo talks
japan the second world war surrender after 2 nuclare bombs in that case I agree
other hamas a dictatorship there is nothing under the hamas hamas abuse there own people
there where protest in gaza against hamas
people ar brainashed
and sometimes I wonder do I see pallywood on the tv
abu taleb says
If 14,000 babies were about to die in 48 hours, then how many adults would have died too? Why didn’t he talk about the adult?
Because, if no adult or just a very few would die, then it would have raised question, how come only babies were dead, which means the adults did not care the babies.
If there were many adults would die, then people would ask, how come suddenly there are so many people killed.
So, just talk about the babies without mentioning the whole population to lie and fool the gullibles.
carpediadem says
The same reason they only ever talk and ail about children under rubble. Mysteriously, no adults are ever found “under the rubble”.
somehistory says
Because most Americans….and some others…still care about babies. Not everyone in the world is for baby-killing as the planners of baby-killing like to claim.
Not as many care about adults who may be dying because the adults can run, hide, fight back or surrender. The babies are helpless.
ChuckyMartel says
Nearly half of my ancestry is British Protestant, with the other half being Jewish. I am still somewhat proud of my British ancestry (it includes Magna Carta sureties, as well as William the Conqueror who invited Jews into England), but seeing how full of Jew hatred the people of the UK are I am indefinitely postponing the trip I was planning to England. Even though I’m secular and not visibly Jewish, so I think I would feel reasonably safe, I just don’t want to support their economy. I was also planning several trips to Europe in my retirement, but there is too much Jew hatred on the continent for my liking, so unless that changes I’ll be boycotting Europe as well. I might make an exception for places like Hungary which seem to be less rabidly anti Israel and less anti Jewish.
jerry glenn says
Rampant Islamopandering
WPM says
All the” killing” started with the governing body the Gaza ,Hamas ordering the attacking of Israel .All the killing could have stop over two years ago if Hamas ordered the turning over of hostages’ .If Hitler surrender before the allies bombed many major cities in Germany many civilians would not have died .If Japan surrender when they where blocked by the American fleet cut off from the world the atomic bombs would not have been dropped and many civilians would not have died. Hamas leaders do not give a rat,s ass about the children in Gaza Hamas leaders are for the most part off in safe areas (mostly in other countries) stealing aid from their own people.
OLD GUY says
You are so correct, and the leaders of these atrocities are always well protected in a safe place away from the fighting. They need to be hunted down, rather than given foreign aide to support their crimes against humanity.
Winston 101 says
The best resolution to war is a quick one.
The muslim Arabs lost their bid to continue perpetuating their ‘two-state” lie on Oct 7th, 2023, when they tried to attain heir true goal – their “one-state” solution.
Get in, accomplish your mission, conclude the mission. Don’t concern yourself with the condemnation noise. Work around political roadblocks as quickly and deftly as possible. Turn down the condemnation noise in your mind. That noise is irrelevant to you. It will continue no matter what you do. Focus on your Strategy and Tactics.
Consider the attention span of people and the news cycle. Most will move on to the next outrage cycle. The only ones still making sqeaking noises would be making those noises anyway.
Go on and build your future. It will be the most fitting monument for all the Israeli victims of the Jihad project the jihadis called “Palestine”.
somehistory says
What you write is true, Winst
someone long ago said, “war is h e l l.” there was a movie, “Hell is for Heroes.”
The “noise” was going on before hamas ended the *ceasefire* on that Oct. morning. The complaints against Israel had never ceased. arafat turned down a ‘two state”…non-solution, imo.
Any lie will do as long as people don’t want to hear the Truth. so, the dying babies pulls at people’s heartstrings….some anyway,, but not the mozlums causing dead babies.
Israel has a right to rid their land of terrorists.
somehistory says
I’m sorry, Winston. I didn’t realize I had not finished typing your name.