UN Mythomanes Come A Cropper

On May 20, Tom Fletcher, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, in an interview with BBC radio made the extraordinary claim that unless more aid from Israel was forthcoming, “there are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them.” Asked how he knew this, Fletcher replied “We have people on the ground.”

Two days later, the UN announced — Fletcher was too embarrassed to admit it himself — a correction. His statement was wrong in every detail. 14,000 children, up to the age of five — not “babies,” could potentially suffer from acute malnutrition — not “death,” over the course of a year, not “within 48 hours.” In other words, every part of Fletcher’s statement was false.

Given the egg on its face, one might have assumed that the UN would now be extremely careful in its statements about the situation in Gaza. Alas, it was not to be.

Now we have another statement, from another UN official, making claims about Tom Fletcher’s knowledge of the situation in Gaza that, like Fletcher’s original claim about “14,000 babies dying within 48 hours,” turns out to be false. More on this latest lie from a UN official, this one made in defense of the indefensible Tom Fletcher, can be found here: “COGAT accuses another UN official of lying following claims of 10,000 waiting aid trucks,” Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2025:

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) accused UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric of lying about UN Relief Chief Tom Fletcher’s recent visits to Gaza and the UN’s framing of the Gaza humanitarian aid issue.

COGAT noted that while Dujarric claimed Fletcher had seen Gaza “with his own eyes a few weeks ago,” the UN official had actually not visited the enclave since February.

“Let’s stop focusing on aid that might be in the pipeline, and start collecting the content of the 550 trucks already waiting for you inside Gaza,” COGAT wrote. “For a full week now, we’ve been offering you alternative routes to facilitate pickup. These are are areas with active military activities, and coordination is for your own safety.

The UN is refusing to collaborate with Israel in its attempt to distribute aid to Gazans while preventing Hamas from stealing much of it, as the terror group has always managed to do in the past. There are 550 trucks full of humanitarian aid now waiting in Gaza, to be picked up by the UN. But the UN, however, is determined not to collaborate in any way with Israel in the distribution of aid, and refuses to take delivery. It would rather see Gazans starve than collaborate in any way with Israel’s own efforts to provide humanitarian aid.

“Enough with the lies and accusations — let’s work together to make sure the aid reaches civilians, not Hamas.”

According to the IDF, close to 900 trucks of aid were let through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, but due to the UN and Hamas, the trucks remain sitting there on the Gazan side of the border. The IDF said that because the UN would rather cooperate with Hamas instead of Israel, the aid does not get distributed properly.

COGAT called Tom Fletcher’s misinformation libelous

Fletcher was previously criticized for claiming that aid trucks were piling up outside the Gaza Strip, which COGAT claimed was misinformation and stressed efforts to criticize Israel were coming at the expense of improving the humanitarian conditions within the Gaza Strip.

“We’ve got 10,000 trucks on the border right now, cleared [and] ready to go, and we’ll do everything to get them in and save lives,” Fletcher told CNN’s Christine Amanpour in an interview.

When she repeated the number back to him incredulously, Fletcher nodded and replied, “Full of food.”…

This was a flat-out lie. It seems Fletcher finds telling the truth so tedious, and besides, a lie to blacken the image of the colonial-settler racist genocidal state of Israel — that is, in a good cause — should always be forgiven.

The UN is determined not to collaborate with the IDF in delivering aid to the people of Gaza. The organization, while it had to correct its employee Tom Fletcher from issuing false claims of immediate mass deaths (“14,000 babies will die in the next 48 hours”), is still trying to damage Israel’s own efforts to distribute aid to Gazans without that aid being stolen by Hamas. The UN refuses to take delivery of hundreds of trucks’ worth of aid that is already inside Gaza, because it does not want to collaborate in any way with the Israeli effort to feed the Gazans. Now the UN has made the preposterous claim that there are “10,000 trucks” waiting to enter Gaza, but Israel is blocking their entry. There are no “10,000 trucks” waiting to enter Gaza. There are 100s of trucks inside Gaza, waiting for the UN to take delivery of the aid they carry.

When it comes to Israel, the UN’s antisemitic mythomanes come out in force. From the Director-General Antonio Guterres, warning of Israel’s possible “war crimes” to the Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, who accuses Israel of “genocide,” to Tom Fletcher, the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, claiming Israel’s failure to provide more aid “will cause 14,000 babies to die within the next 48 hours,” to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, claiming that Tom Fletcher had just been in Gaza “a few weeks ago” when he knew perfectly well that Fletcher had not been in the Strip since February, they all contribute their mite to blackening the Jewish state in the eyes of the world.

But there is one bit of good news in all this. Thanks mainly to the Trump administration reducing America’s financial support for the UN, which has for decades amounted to one-quarter of the total, the UN is preparing to cut its $3.7 billion budget by 20%, and to slash about 6900 jobs, according to an internal memo. Who knows? Perhaps Tom Fletcher, given his sorry record, or Stephane Dujarric, who also made false claims about Fletcher, will be among those fired. Hope springs eternal.