U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is asking Americans to watch and listen to the United Nation’s top humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, as he delivered his assessment of “the 21st century atrocity, to which we bear daily witness in Gaza.”
Fletcher said: “Israel is deliberately and unashamedly imposing inhumane conditions on civilians in the occupied Palestine territory. For more than ten weeks, nothing has entered Gaza, no food, no medicine, water or tents.”
He added, “Every single one of the 2.1 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip face the risk of famine.”
Fletcher said his main ask to the members of the UN Security Council was to “let us work. Food funded by your taxpayers is waiting at the borders to enter Gaza. We could be saving millions of lives. Let us do it.”
Yesterday, the UN’s top humanitarian official delivered his assessment of Israel’s barbaric war against the Palestinian people, intentionally making life unlivable in Gaza.
This will be a permanent stain on the world’s conscience.
Please take a moment to watch: pic.twitter.com/ZNNhxZbvRJ
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 14, 2025
Sanders amplified the video and wrote: “Yesterday, the UN’s top humanitarian official delivered his assessment of Israel’s barbaric war against the Palestinian people, intentionally making life unlivable in Gaza. This will be a permanent stain on the world’s conscience. Please take a moment to watch.”
On Monday at the UN Security Council, Fletcher also discussed Yemen and the need to protect civilians and humanitarian workers, as seen below.
Yemen at Security Council today.
Funding cuts. Security threats. Rising needs. Bombing of crucial infrastructure. ⁰⁰We are doing all we can to save lives with the money we have. pic.twitter.com/qvjI2wYVfW
— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) May 14, 2025
Note: Fletcher, who is currently the Principal of Hertford College, Oxford (since 2020) and Vice-Chair of Oxford University’s Conference of Colleges (since 2022), previous led work for former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on refugee education. He also served as United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Lebanon (2011-2015), as Foreign and Development Policy Adviser to three United Kingdom Prime Ministers (2007-2011), and as the Prime Ministers’ mediator on Northern Ireland.