UN says 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in next 48 hours under Israeli aid blockade

[groundloop]

Source: The Guardian

The UN’s humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, told the BBC this morning that 14,000 babies could die in Gaza in 48 hours if aid did not reach them in time. Five aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday but Fletcher described this as a “drop in the ocean” and totally inadequate for the population’s needs.

It followed the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saying yesterday that 2 million people were starving in the Gaza Strip while “tonnes of food is blocked at the border” by Israel.

The leaders of the UK, France and Canada yesterday condemned Israel’s “egregious actions” in Gaza and warned of joint action if Israel continued. Meanwhile, Palestinians began fleeing Khan Younis as Israel ordered people to “evacuate immediately” before an “unprecedented attack” that the military says is targeting Hamas infrastructure.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/20/first-thing-un-says-14000-babies-could-die-in-gaza-in-next-48-hours-under-israeli-aid-blockade

[Chasstev365]

1. War Crimes

Gaza is the 21st Century Warsaw Ghetto

[LiberalArkie]

6. And soon "Trail of Tears 2"

[AZLD4Candidate]

32. Been debunked and posted on DU.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143463434

[LiberalArkie]

36. I am sorry, I was referring to the desire to walk the Palestinians to Libya.

[AZLD4Candidate]

38. My mother is native American (full blooded Haudenosaunee) and this is as insulting to me as calling Israelis nazis.

[bdamomma]

2. Ethic cleansing??

when will those be held accountable for this genocidal slaughter?? Crimes against humanity. And we don't even have a competent government to do the right thing, and hold this felon we have accountable because of his fucking fascination for being a wanna be dick...tator.

[Beastly Boy]

17. A retracted lie?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/debunked-un-officials-claim-14000-gazan-babies-could-die-in-48-hours-was-untrue/

[bdamomma]

24. Thanks

for posting, I will bookmark this article.

[lapucelle]

30. And today the BBC buried the lede regarding the retraction.

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Mr Fletcher said: "There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them." When pressed on how he had arrived at that figure, he said there were "strong teams on the ground" operating in medical centres and schools - but did not provide further details.

snip====================

The BBC later asked for clarification on the figure from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), which said: "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 IPC partnership has warned about. We need to get the supplies in as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours."

It highlighted a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) which stated 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition are expected to occur among children aged six to 59 months between April 2025 and March 2026. The IPC report says this could take place over the course of about a year - not 48 hours.

When pressed on the figures at a news conference, UNOCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said: "For now let me just say that we know for a fact that there are babies who are in urgent life-saving need of these supplements that need to come in because their mothers are unable to feed themselves.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crk2264nrn2o

[OrlandoDem2]

3. What else would you call this but an Israeli genocide?

[Dave Bowman]

5. Final Solution 2.0.

[AloeVera]

15. But a new spelling.

"Operation Gideon Chariots".

[Beastly Boy]

18. How'bout a retracted fairy tale?

Last edited Wed May 21, 2025, 06:08 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/debunked-un-officials-claim-14000-gazan-babies-could-die-in-48-hours-was-untrue/

[OrlandoDem2]

22. Good, but Israel is still using hunger as a weapon of war.

[Beastly Boy]

23. Who is using hunger as a weapon of war is debatable.

Last edited Wed May 21, 2025, 06:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Hamas has been in control of food distribution for almost the entire war. They stole much of it to feed terrorists.

And making shit up is never good.

[totodeinhere]

33. Except that this story has been debunked. n/t

[AloeVera]

37. Not really. There were 3,700 kids in March acutely malnourished.

A doubling over February. At that rate, by now it's around 14,000 if not vastly higher - as the lack siege progressed, the rate may have gone higher.

But some like to play gotcha games to distract from the horrific suffering inflicted on little kids.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/27/gaza-on-brink-of-catastrophe-as-aid-runs-out-and-prices-soar-groups-warn

[Beastly Boy]

4. Also UN: We have received permission from Israel to allow 100 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-854711

So if any children die in the next 48 hours in Gaza due to blockade, it would be because of the UN negligence and incompetence in delivering and distributing the aid to those children inside Gaza.

[LiberalArkie]

7. I hope that they realize that food is not an instant cure for a starving person. Only hospitals can help.

[Beastly Boy]

9. With relatively few exceptions that require medical intervebntion,

food IS the cure for a starving person.

The UN numbers are hypothetical, and the contents of the 100 truckloads hypothetically include medical supplies for the babier requiring medical intervention, whether food related or not.

[moniss]

8. The time for the UK and the French

to own up to their own shenanigans since the early 1900's in the question of Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq etc. is long overdue. The US never will. But on the subject of Israel and the IDF it is also long overdue for a strong military force to stand up to them. Actually it's so late now that it would likely never happen. The reason I say this is that the areas in question are legally under the control of the UN but the radical right wing government in Israel, like various governments before it, treat the UN as something to ignore or demonize.

The Israeli government should never have been given the authority to be a presence in the West Bank or Gaza for any reason. However the US worked it's leverage to see to it that the "security" of those areas would be under Israeli control and also that the US would be the main power regarding status negotiations etc. The US, UK and France have a long history of jockeying factions against each other for their own purposes of geopolitical influence and oil. The UK and France during their Mandates and after were focused on harming each other in the region and having "control".

The partition being done in the way it was demonstrated to most people the bullying of the US at the UN and was predicted by many to be a constant conflict if the terms were not agreeable to all parties or if it was enacted unilaterally for the benefit of one party. But that is what happened and now here we are. The UN should have, but was prevented, extended the Mandate and continued on with efforts to get an agreement that both main parties could accept. If they had and would have deployed a true peacekeeping force with actual power to go after radical terror groups from both sides then we might have a better chance of success.

Instead one side was favored and unilaterally declared acceptance of the proposed partition plan and declared independence. The UN should never have recognized the country on such a basis. The Nakba, the cleansing was underway already before then, was now on steroids. Obviously the Arab world felt that it was clear that the UN and the Western powers were far less than "honest arbiters" given how it all went down. However the Arab countries were emerging from a mix of the Ottoman Empire hangover and the colonialist approach of the UK and France in dealing with their separate Mandates. By constantly using factions in that world against each other and switching horses all the time there was little sincere effort at creating unified countries. So of course that blunts political or military power in those countries for responding to anything or asserting themselves.

So these various factions in those countries, like the Druze for example, were like their own little armies and the fact that some would become "terror" groups is a predictable outcome and in fact are used by outside parties to this day. For the Western countries to decry violence and factionalism when it is what they predictably cemented in place by their maneuvers in the Middle East, and Palestine in particular, is disingenuous nonsense. The Western countries set it up, they fed on it and they still do.

[Beastly Boy]

19. Or just read the lates retraction from UN an BBC

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/debunked-un-officials-claim-14000-gazan-babies-could-die-in-48-hours-was-untrue/

[AloeVera]

10. Nothing in the U.S. MSM.

There is a big ocean to cross, after all...

Here's some more details - from another UK paper:

"...I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours," he said, adding the UN needed to “flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid”.

Mr Fletcher continued: “We get impeded at every point. But we'll load those up with that baby food, and our people will run those risks.”

Mr Fletcher said it was “utterly chilling” number, and the agency faced significant issues trying to reach them but they would “keep going”.

It will be frustrating, we will be impeded and run huge risks. But I don't see a better idea than getting that baby food in," he said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/gaza-strip-babies-aid-israel-b2754287.html

God speed to the humanitarians. We know the risks they run, and the obstacles put in their way, trying to get food to starving Palestinians.

[Beastly Boy]

20. I think you will appreciate this fact in a few minutes

Debunked: UN official’s claim 14,000 Gazan babies could die in 48 hours was untrue
Today, 4:54 pm

After a top UN official told the BBC yesterday that some 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid does not reach them in time, the British broadcaster clarifies that this claim was false and based on an incorrect interpretation of a report issued by the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, claimed yesterday on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” show: “There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them. I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours.”

The claim was widely reported in international media outlets, including The Times of Israel, and was repeatedly cited by UK lawmakers during a House of Commons debate yesterday.

However, BBC now says that after asking the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for clarification, it turns out the remarks were based on an IPC report that warned that 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition were expected to occur between April 2025 and March 2026 among children aged between six months and five years.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/debunked-un-officials-claim-14000-gazan-babies-could-die-in-48-hours-was-untrue/

[AloeVera]

25. No more words...

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cwyn9291yv0o

[Beastly Boy]

28. I think you are brave enough to handle just a few:

The 14,000 babies potentially dying in 48 hours was a bold faced lie.

Defend THIS.

[AZLD4Candidate]

31. but, but what about the words of gaza health officials (the elected hamas government) they never lie

[BigMin28]

34. Please

tell me, how many children dying of starvation are you okay with? 1, 10, 100?

[Beastly Boy]

35. What does your question have to do with the UN lies?

Do you always deflect from the topics you are uncomfortable with, or is this an exception?

[Coolgoober]

11. Pro Life?

I thought Trump and all his sycophants were pro life. How could they let this happen? Could it be because they're not Jewish and or they're not white?! It is a sick, sick, sick world we live in.

[ECL213]

12. It's a feature, not a bug.

[Beastly Boy]

21. What? BBC and UN stepping in the manure of their own making?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/debunked-un-officials-claim-14000-gazan-babies-could-die-in-48-hours-was-untrue/

Debunked: UN official’s claim 14,000 Gazan babies could die in 48 hours was untrue
Today, 4:54 pm



After a top UN official told the BBC yesterday that some 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid does not reach them in time, the British broadcaster clarifies that this claim was false and based on an incorrect interpretation of a report issued by the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, claimed yesterday on BBC Radio 4’s “Today” show: “There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them. I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours.”

The claim was widely reported in international media outlets, including The Times of Israel, and was repeatedly cited by UK lawmakers during a House of Commons debate yesterday.

However, BBC now says that after asking the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for clarification, it turns out the remarks were based on an IPC report that warned that 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition were expected to occur between April 2025 and March 2026 among children aged between six months and five years.

[Wednesdays]

13. Good thing we got rid of "Genocide Joe" and Kamala.

[AloeVera]

14. "Know Their Names"

Al Jazeera (who else would care?) had a project called "Know Their Names". It was a compilation of the names of everyone killed in Gaza from Oct. 7, 2023 to January 2024 I believe - from bombing. It started off with the names of babies aged "0 years".

This is the beginning of the 0 years list. There are hundreds more names - of babies.
Noura Walid Abdulsalam Shaheen (0 years old)
Maryam Nour Al-Din Wael Daban (0 years old)
Fatima Louay Rafiq Al-Sultan (0 years old)
Watan Mohammed Abd Al-Rahim Al-Madhoon (0 years old)
Mohammad Al-Jabbari Said Misbah Al-Khour (0 years old)
Diyaa Ahmed Abd Al-Aati Saleh Moussa (0 years old)
Oday Mohammed Rafiq Al-Sultan (0 years old)
Mohammed Nidal Hisham Attallah (0 years old)
Ahmad Shadi Talal Al-Haddad (0 years old)
Masa Mohammed Youssef Nasr (0 years old)
Ayat Abd Al-Aziz Omar Farwana (0 years old)
Maalek Mohammed Shafeeq Abu-Al-Kas (0 years old)
Sarah Abd Al-Rahman Mohammed Hamad (0 years old)
Mohammed Saleh Mahmoud Al-Deiri (0 years old)
Mecca Ahmed Eid Abu-Sherekh (0 years old)
Iyad Abd Al-Rahman Jihad Muhaysen (0 years old)
Adam Mohammed Sameer Abu-Ajwah (0 years old)
Alayan Abd Al-Rahman Alayan Al-Ashqar (0 years old)
....

It does not include the names of those buried under rubble. Nor the thousands maimed and injured. Nor of course, of the 8 babies who froze to death in January of this year or the ones who died from illnesses over the course of the war due to lack of adequate medical care due to the destruction of their medical system and hospitals. Nor...

I suppose it's debatable which is the worst form of death for babies - quick shredding or burning by bombs or a slow agonizing death from starvation. (Though dying under rubble would be a slow and agonizing death too). What is not debatable, imho, is that this should not have been allowed to happen in the first place. It is neither "self-defense" nor in any way justifiable. That it was allowed to happen for 18 months is because these people and babies are Palestinians. Take from that what you will.

[Beastly Boy]

16. That didn't age well, did it?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/debunked-un-officials-claim-14000-gazan-babies-could-die-in-48-hours-was-untrue/

[AloeVera]

26. No more words for anyone still defending THIS:

https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cwyn9291yv0o

[Beastly Boy]

27. Apparently, the BBC chairman is not impressed.

https://www.thenational.scot/news/24576072.bbc-chairman-says-gaza-coverage-subject-deep-review/

[Irish_Dem]

29. The Irish Great Famine killed one and a half million people.

It was genocide by the British.
There was enough food and resources to prevent the deaths.

It makes me sick to see what Israel is doing to these babies in Gaza.