Did the UN say that 14,000 babies would die if there is no aid to Gaza in 48 hours? Yes, the organization's representative did cite such a figure, but that figure appears to have been drawn from a UN prediction that covered roughly a year between April 2025 and March 2026, not a single day. Here is what we know so far.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on May 21, 2025. It opened:
'There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them.'
Tom Fletcher, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has issued an urgent warning about the situation in Gaza, where a severe blockade has left baby food and nutrition aid stuck at the border.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The entry included an interview with UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher (archived here), which was aired by BBC on May 20, 2025. In it, he indeed said that the absence of humanitarian aid in the next 48 hours could lead to 14,000 children's deaths in Gaza.
The statement was made in the context of delivering food to the area that had been exposed to the 11-week blockade. At the time, some trucks carrying humanitarian supplies were said to have crossed into Gaza (archived here) but the aid was not being distributed.
Fletcher did not cite a specific source for the figures, but the estimate appears to have come from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (archived here). Previously, the organization published a Gaza-specific assessment (archived here) that, in part, reads:
Nearly 71,000 cases of acute malnutrition, including 14,100 severe cases, are expected to occur between April 2025 and March 2026.
The assessment did not say that over 14,000 deaths would occur in 48 hours.
Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the UN, told BBC (archived here) that Fletcher's statement emphasized the "imperative of getting supplies in" to save children "suffering from severe acute malnutrition".
Lead Stories reached out to the UN for additional comments but did not receive an immediate response.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Israel and Gaza are here.
