World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was inside the Yemeni capital’s airport when Israeli forces launched the deadly attack on the facility.
On Friday, the Houthi-affiliated Sabah news agency reported that rebels targeted Israel’s Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv. Spokespeople for the Israel Defense Forces and the airport said they were not aware of the incident.
Israel on Thursday struck multiple targets in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport, as the conflict with Iran-backed Houthi rebels there escalates and multi-front wars continue across the Middle East as the year draws to a close. It intensified.
Israeli forces launched an attack on Sanaa international airport amid an escalating gunfight with the Houthis, and on Wednesday Israeli forces intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, injuring several people. Magen David Adom emergency services said they had received reports of about nine people injured, Reuters reported.
Ghebreyesus said he and other WHO colleagues were preparing to board a plane just “few meters” away from the area attacked by Israel.
“My colleagues at the United Nations and WHO are safe,” Ghebreyesus said in a statement published in X. He was in Yemen to negotiate the release of UN personnel detained there and assess the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge (just a few meters from where we were) and the runway were damaged,” he said, adding that he and his team hoped the airport would be repaired before departing. Yemen, he added, would have to wait.
By Friday evening, Ghebreyesus told X that he was in Jordan with a UN worker injured in the strike who was currently undergoing further medical treatment.
Dr. Anes Alasbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi health ministry in Sanaa, said in a statement that at least three people were killed and at least 13 injured as a result of the airstrike. He added that at least three other people were later killed in separate attacks.
The World Food Program said those injured in the attack, including a WFP-contracted air crew member, were receiving treatment.
“Humanitarians are #NotATarget,” the organization said in a statement published on Thursday He pointed out and said:
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the airstrike, including whether it was aware that a WHO delegation was at the airport at the time of the strike.
Israeli officials hailed the attack as a demonstration of the Houthis’ ability to “reach out and attack any threat” against Israelis, following a recent escalation of attacks on Israel. did.
“Over the years, we have developed the ability to strike accurately, powerfully and repeatedly at great distances from Israeli territory,” Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Helj Halevi said in a statement posted online. said.
The Houthi rebel movement, which controls much of Yemen and is backed by Iran, has vowed to continue attacking Israel and commercial shipping in the Red Sea until the end of the Gaza war.
The IDF reported late Thursday that at least one missile launched from Yemen was intercepted “before it could enter Israeli territory.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the violence in a statement published on Thursday X and warned that he was “deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region.”
He noted that a high-level UN delegation was inside Sanaa airport at the time of the airstrike, and called on “all parties to cease military operations and exercise utmost restraint.”
“International law must be respected,” he said.
Yarden Segev, Omer Bekin, Courtney Kube, and Dan De Luce contributed.
