UN humanitarian chief blasts Israel for ‘deliberately’ blocking aid to Gaza

U.N. official condemns Israel for blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza, risking famine, amid ongoing conflict.

The United Nations’ top humanitarian official blasted Israel on Tuesday (May 13, 2025) for “deliberately and unashamedly” imposing inhumane conditions on Palestinians, including the risk of famine — one of the strongest condemnations by a high-ranking U.N. official during the war in Gaza.

Tom Fletcher, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, briefed the Security Council, describing this work as a “grim undertaking” since Israel began blocking all humanitarian aid from entering Gaza more than 10 weeks ago.

He went as far as saying that the council must “act now” to “prevent genocide," a claim that Israel vehemently denied.

“I ask you to reflect — for a moment — on what action we will tell future generations we each took to stop the 21st century atrocity to which we bear daily witness in Gaza,” said Mr. Fletcher, a longtime British diplomat who took up the U.N. post in November. “It is a question we will hear, sometimes incredulous, sometimes furious — but always there — for the rest of our lives.”

In response to Mr. Fletcher’s remarks, the Israeli mission to the U.N. said that “Israel will not accept a humanitarian mechanism that props up the Hamas terror organisation that butchered our people in their homes and communities.” Before the blockade, the U.N. and other international aid agencies handled moving aid into the enclave.

The U.N. World Food Program’s director for Gaza, Antoine Renard, told The Associated Press that a quarter of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine. That's despite all the food needed to feed the territory's population sitting in warehouses in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan — and most of it is not even 25 miles (40 kilometres) away, he said.

Mr. Renard said WFP warehouses in Gaza are empty, and the agency has gone from providing meals for 1 million people at the end of April to producing only 250,000 meals daily. The meals they can serve are “meaningless, compared to people’s requirements,” he said.