"Out of control": UN makes rare admission regarding the hunger phenomenon in the Gaza Strip
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres admitted that many of the UN's independent reporters have "completely gone out of control." Simultaneously, a new UNICEF survey presented data on the nutritional status of children in the Gaza Strip that significantly contradicts last year's claims of mass starvation.
Two developments within the UN system renewed Israel's claims yesterday regarding the ongoing bias against it: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres admitted that many of the UN's independent reporters have "completely gone out of control." Simultaneously, a new survey by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) showed data that is fundamentally different from the picture of mass starvation in Gaza that the organization promoted last year.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Guterres was asked how he responds to Israel's claim of institutional anti-Israel bias at the UN. The Secretary-General argued that he cannot answer on behalf of the entire organization because some of its bodies are independent, and added: "We have independent reporters, and many of them have completely gone out of control from the Secretariat's point of view." However, he rejected the claim of bias towards the Secretariat, claiming it is on "the right side of history."
The special rapporteur mechanism of the Human Rights Council is ostensibly independent: the officeholders are not officially UN employees and do not receive a salary from it. However, they are politically appointed and receive an official title and a platform from the UN, which grant them authority as bodies affiliated with the organization.
A prominent example is Francesca Albanese, the rapporteur for the "Palestinian territories," who compared Israel to Nazi Germany and claimed that the US is "enslaved by the Jewish lobby." In July 2025, the US imposed sanctions on her.
Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, placed the responsibility directly on Guterres: "Now, before he finishes his term, UN Secretary-General Guterres admits that many of the UN's human rights reporters have 'completely gone out of control.' It is time to ask who let them go out of control in the first place. This happened on his watch."
The statement comes against the backdrop of a new UNICEF survey, which examined the nutritional status of 1,335 children in 147 locations across the Strip. Its findings determine that in the areas examined, "there is no evidence of widespread acute malnutrition at the population level." Only 0.5% of the children suffered from acute malnutrition, while 4% suffered from being overweight. Although the report found other problems, the picture that emerged was very different from the claims of mass starvation spread around the world.
UNICEF emphasized that the survey was conducted between the end of May and mid-June of this year, after the ceasefire in October 2025. The number of children admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition dropped from almost 17,000 in August 2025 to less than 3,000 in March of this year. It was noted that the survey did not include about 17% of the population due to access restrictions, so it cannot determine in retrospect what the situation was at the time of the declaration of famine last year.
US Ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, responded sharply, writing that "too many actors in the international community spread the blood libel of starvation in Gaza against Israel," and that the new data refutes the narrative. Danon added: "The new UNICEF report presents a completely different picture from the false narrative that the UN promoted. The UN must stick to facts, not propaganda."
