Staff Reports
In a viral post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, a claim is made that the United Nations (UN) stated no inspections were conducted on trucks entering the Gaza Strip. However, this claim has been debunked and proven false. The claim originally circulated as a response to an error in an October 21 article by the New York Times, which has since been corrected. A spokesperson from the UN has denied the validity of this claim, confirming that there is no evidence to support it.
The post in question raises concerns about whether the items transported in these trucks were genuinely humanitarian aid or potentially included additional rockets for Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip. However, no reliable sources or evidence have been provided to support this claim. In fact, the UN’s official website and verified social media accounts do not make any references to trucks entering Gaza without inspections. Additionally, the UN has not published any articles mentioning trucks delivering aid to Gaza without being inspected.
Today's #Hamas/#Gaza-Israel stories:
FACT CHECK: X POST MAKES FALSE CLAIM ABOUT UN, TRUCKS ENTERING GAZA STRIP (@cmsellers14)
The claim appears to have circulated in response to an error in an Oct 21 New York Times article that has since been correctedhttps://t.co/7fALtfCJl3
— Check Your Fact (@Check_Your_Fact) October 27, 2023
It seems that this false claim began circulating after Israeli media personality Hananya Naftali shared a similar post on X on October 21. Naftali may have based his post on an error in the New York Times report, which initially suggested that the first aid convoy crossing from Egypt to Gaza had not been inspected for weapons. However, the New York Times later issued a correction, clarifying that the Israeli side was fully aware of the convoy’s contents.
In response to the false claim, UN spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez vehemently denied its validity in an email to Check Your Fact. She stated that the UN did not make the statement mentioned in the tweet and that the New York Times mischaracterized the remarks of Stéphane Dujarric, the Chief Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Nino-Martinez even provided a screenshot of the correction issued by the New York Times to further debunk the claim.
In conclusion, the viral post claiming that the UN stated no inspections were conducted on trucks recently entering the Gaza Strip is false. No evidence supports this claim, and it appears to have stemmed from an error in a New York Times article. The UN has explicitly denied the claim’s validity, emphasizing that the correct information has been provided and circulated through official channels.
