World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus narrowly escaped an aerial bombardment at Sanaa International Airport in Yemen on Thursday, which resulted in the deaths of at least two people.
Taking to X, he informed, “Our mission to negotiate the release of @UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in #Yemen concluded today. We continue to call for the detainees’ immediate release.”
He added, “As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport. The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged. We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave. My UN and @WHO colleagues and I are safe.”
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres took to social media and condemned the attack. In his post, he informed that, “A UN Humanitarian Air Service crew member was also injured when the airport was hit. A high-level UN delegation, headed by WHO Director-General @DrTedros, was at the airport when the strikes occurred. The delegation had just concluded discussions on the humanitarian situation in Yemen and the release of UN and other detained personnel.”
He added, “Today’s airstrikes follow around a year of escalatory actions by the Houthis in the Red Sea and the region that threaten civilians, regional stability and freedom of maritime navigation. I reiterate my call for all parties to cease military actions and exercise utmost restraint. International law must be respected. Civilians and humanitarian workers must never be targeted.”
The Israeli military said that it targeted infrastructure used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the Sanaa International Airport, as well as power stations and ports. Israel claims these locations were involved in smuggling Iranian weapons and facilitating the arrival of senior Iranian officials.
Meanwhile, Israel’s latest wave of strikes in Yemen follows several days of Houthi launches setting off air-raid sirens in Israel. The Houthis have also been targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.
