The UN humanitarian chief who previously made the now-debunked claim that 14,000 babies in Gaza would die within 48 hours has accused Israel of deliberately starving the Strip’s population.
Tom Fletcher, who leads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), claimed that aid was waiting on the enclave’s border but was not being allowed in, labelling it a “war crime”.
In an interview with the BBC’s Fergal Keane, he said: “We’re seeing food sat on the borders and not being allowed in, when there is a population on the other side of the border that is starving.
“We’re hearing Israeli ministers say that [this] is to put pressure on the population on Gaza.”
Israel has denied that it is causing starvation in Gaza, claiming that a sufficient quantity of aid has reached the Strip and that shortages are due to Hamas theft.
On May 18, Jerusalem said it would allow a "basic amount of food" to enter Gaza to make sure "no starvation crisis develops" after blockading the territory since 1 March.
However, asked by Keane if what he had described – using food as a weapon of war – constituted a war crime, Fletcher said: “Yes, it is classified as a war crime.”
Elsewhere, in the interview, the UN official said that he "really regretted" making the claim last week that 14,000 children could die in Gaza could die if the aid blockade was not eased in the subsequent 48 hours.
The figure was apparently based on a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Partnership.
However, a look at the IPC report reveals that the figure refers to the number of children at risk of “severe malnutrition” by March next year.
The number is a projection and would not take into account any increase in the supply of aid between now and then.
As it transpired, 14,000 children did not starve to death in Gaza in those two days, though the claim was widely repeated across international media and by 13 MPs in a parliamentary debate.
The UN later withdrew the claim after it was pressed on the figure by the BBC – though this was included around half way down a larger BBC News piece about the risk of widespread starvation in Gaza
Asked by Keane about the “big gaffe”, Fletcher said: “We’ve got to be very careful with our numbers.
“We’ve got to be precise, and that’s a lesson that I’ve learnt in the last couple of weeks.”
