WHO official says he was meters away from Israeli attack on Yemen airport | Israel-Palestine Conflicts News

A wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's main airport as the director-general of the World Health Organization said he was about to board a flight there, injuring a United Nations flight attendant, a WHO official said.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told X that he was just meters away from the attack on Sanaa airport on Thursday.

“When we were about to board our flight from Sanaa … the airport was bombed. One of our flight crew was injured,” he said.

“The air traffic control tower, the rest area – which is a few meters away from where we were – and the runway were damaged,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues were safe.

There is no comment from Israel on this incident.

The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said three people were killed in the strike on the airport and three others were killed after Israel hit the major port city of Hodeidah, while 40 others were injured in the Israeli attack.

Israel's military said it attacked infrastructure used by Yemen's Houthis at the international airport in the capital, Sanaa, as well as power stations and ports, saying they were being used to smuggle Iranian weapons and access senior Iranian officials.

The Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles at Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from UN headquarters in New York, said Ghebreyesus and his staff were evacuated to a safe place after the attack on the airport.

“The UN tells us that all its workers are accounted for. But make no mistake about it, this was a very close call,” Elizondo said.

UN spokeswoman Stephanie Tremblay told reporters that the delegation had just concluded talks on the humanitarian situation in Yemen and was negotiating the release of detained UN staff.

“The Secretary-General emphasizes that international law, including humanitarian law as it applies, must be respected at all times, and urges everyone to respect and protect civilians and human infrastructure,” he said.

“Humanitarian workers must not be targeted and must be respected and protected at all times.”

The Houthis promised to push back

On Thursday, the Houthis said they were ready to respond quickly to the attack and face a “massive escalation”, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Channel 14 that Israel was starting its campaign against the Houthis. “We just started with them,” he said.

The prime minister was reinforced at home by the Israeli military's campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon and its destruction of many Syrian army weapons.

Raiman al-Hamdani, a Yemeni researcher at the international development group ARK, said that Israel's attacks on the airport showed a significant increase.

Al-Hamdani also said that the Houthis are playing with fire by “doubling down” on their promise to continue attacking Israel and that the country does not have the capacity to deal with the problem of a major conflict involving Israel.

“I think there is no turning back from what we saw today because the Houthis are determined to continue attacking Israel,” he said.

Last week, Israeli warplanes bombed Sanaa and Hodeidah, killing nine people. The US military has also targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days.

The latest Israeli strikes in Yemen follow several days of the Houthis sounding the alarm over Israeli airstrikes. The Houthis have also focused on shipping through the Red Sea corridor, claiming they are supporting the Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel's war in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of whom are children and women, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.