Sanaa (Yemen): After the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had a narrow escape at the airport in Yemen’s capital Sanaa when an Israeli airstrike killed six, the United Nations chief denounced the “escalation” in hostilities between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Israel. He called the Israeli strikes on targets including at the airport in Sana’a “especially alarming.”
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday. It also struck the international airport in the capital, Sanaa. A spokesperson for UN secretary general, António Guterres, said in a statement: “The secretary general condemns the escalation between Yemen and Israel. Israeli airstrikes today on Sana’a international airport, the Red Sea ports and power stations in Yemen are especially alarming …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.”
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.
As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport… pic.twitter.com/riZayWHkvf
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 26, 2024
Earlier, Tedros wrote on social media that he was about to board a plane at the airport when it came under the aerial attack. A crew member on the plane was reportedly injured.
“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. Our heartfelt condolences to the families whose loved ones lost their lives in the attack,” he wrote.
Tedros was in Yemen to negotiate the release of UN staff detained by the Houthis. He was also assessing the humanitarian situation.
The Israeli military however didn’t come up with any statement to clarify whether they were aware of Tedros’ presence at the time of the attack.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had said on Thursday that Israel’s air force attacked Houthi targets. He claimed that the attacks were carried out on the coastline and in Sanaa. “We are determined to cut off this terrorist arm of Iran’s evil axis. We will persist in this until we complete the task,” Netanyahu had said, as quoted by The Guardian.
