WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a press conference with the Association of Accredited Correspondents of the United Nations (ACANU) at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, December 10, 2024. FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images/AFPHide caption
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Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he and his United Nations colleagues “nearly escaped death” at a Yemeni airport when an Israeli airstrike targeted the country’s main airport.
In an interview with the BBC, Mr Tedros described the scene at the airport during Thursday’s attack as “very chaotic”.
“People were confused and running everywhere,” he told Radio 4’s Today program on Saturday.
The WHO director-general said he and his team were “fully exposed” and “we were lucky. Otherwise, if the missile had missed even just a little, it could have hit us in the head.” .
Tedros was waiting to board a plane in Yemen’s capital Sanaa when the Israeli missile struck. One of the crew members of the UN plane was injured when the airport came under attack. At least three people at the airport were reported killed.
Video from the airport shows U.N. workers trying to rescue Tedros to safety.
The Israeli military said the attack targeted infrastructure used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Iran. Israel said it was not aware that a UN delegation was at Sanaa airport at the time of the attack.
