WHO head caught in Israeli air strike

The chief of the UN’s World Health Organisation was at an airport where it was bombed by Israel on Thursday.

The head of the United Nations’ World Health Organisation was at an airport at the time Israel bombed it in retaliation for a strike in Tel Aviv.

Israeli air strikes pummelled Sanaa’s international airport and other targets in Yemen on Thursday, leaving three people dead, a day after the latest attacks on Israel by Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was at the airport during the strike, he said, adding that “one of our plane’s crew members was injured”.

It’s not clear if Israel was aware of the senior UN official’s whereabouts at the time. Israel, and the UN have had a frosty relationship due to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Thursday’s strikes targeting the airport, military facilities and power stations in rebel areas follow rising hostilities between Israel and the Huthis, part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” alliance against Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel’s strikes would “continue until the job is done”.

“We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil,” he said in a video statement.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was at Yemen’s Sanaa Airport when it was bombed by Israel. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

His defence minister Israel Katz said Israel would “hunt down all the Huthi leaders … No one will be able to escape us”.

Mr Tedros, who was in Yemen to seek the release of detained UN staff and assess the humanitarian situation in war-torn Yemen, said he and his team were about to board their flight when “the airport came under aerial bombardment”.

He said the air traffic control tower, departure lounge and runway were damaged in the strike.

The rebel-held capital’s airport was struck by “more than six” attacks with raids also targeting the adjacent Al-Dailami air base, a witness told AFP.

A series of strikes were also fired at a power station in Hodeida, a witness and the Iran-backed Huthis’ official Al-Masirah TV station said.

Two people died and 11 were wounded at the rebel-held capital’s airport, and one person was killed and three were missing at Ras Issa port, Huthi statements said.

Huthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam called the strikes, a day after the Huthis fired a missile and two drones at Israel, “a Zionist crime against all the Yemeni people”.

The Israeli military said its “fighter jets conducted intelligence-based strikes on military targets belonging to the Huthi terrorist regime”.

Social media showed travellers rushing in panic out of Sanaa international airport. (Photo by UGC / AFP)

Israel says it is retaliating for a Houthi strike on Tel Aviv. (Photo by UGC / AFP)

Tel Aviv attack

The targets included “military infrastructure” at the airport and power stations in Sanaa and Hodeida, as well as other facilities at Hodeida, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports, an Israeli statement said.

“These military targets were used by the Huthi terrorist regime to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials,” the statement said.

“The Huthi terrorist regime is a central part of the Iranian axis of terror,” it added.

Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes as a “violation” of peace and security.

“These aggressions are a clear violation of international peace and security and an undeniable crime against the heroic and noble people of Yemen,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement.

A Yemeni tribal gunman takes part in a demonstration denouncing Israeli strikes and in solidarity with Palestine, in the suburbs of the Huthi-controlled capital Sanaa, on December 23, 2024. (Photo by Mohammed HUWAIS / AFP)

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which is fighting Israel in the Gaza Strip, condemned the attack as an “aggression” against its “brothers from Yemen”.

On Saturday, days ahead of Wednesday’s missile and drone strike on Israel, 16 people were wounded by a Huthi attack in Tel Aviv.

The incident prompted a warning from Mr Netanyahu, who said he ordered the destruction of the rebel group’s infrastructure.

The Huthis have fired a series of missiles and drones at Israel since the eruption of war in Gaza in October last year, claiming solidarity with the Palestinians.

The rebels, part of Iran’s “axis of resistance” against Israel and the United States, have also waged a months-long campaign against shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

Scores of drone and missile attacks on cargo ships have prompted a series of reprisal strikes by US and sometimes British forces.

‘Pay a heavy price’

Israel has also previously struck the Huthis in Yemen, including hitting ports and energy facilities, after rebel attacks against its territory.

In July, a Huthi drone attack on Tel Aviv killed an Israeli civilian, prompting retaliatory strikes on Hodeida.

Last week, before the latest volley of attacks, Mr Netanyahu said the Huthis would “pay a very heavy price” for their strikes on Israel.

The Huthis control large parts of Yemen after seizing the capital and ousting the internationally recognised government in September 2014.

A Saudi-led coalition launched a military campaign to dislodge them in March 2015, triggering a war that has caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Originally published as WHO head caught in Israeli air strike