UN aid chief defends using term ‘genocide’ in Gaza remarks to Security Council

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher is a longtime British diplomat (Richard Drew/AP)

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief has defended using the term “genocide” to describe what aid workers are trying to prevent in Gaza, saying the world should not make the same mistakes seen in past violations of international law, when it was not “called out soon enough”.

Tom Fletcher, in an interview with The Associated Press, said his forceful speech this week to the UN Security Council was meant to highlight what he views as the “eroding” of a rules-based order in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and months-long blockade of lifesaving aid.