'Faced A Dangerous Attack, Safe Now': WHO Chief Posts Video Of Escaping Israeli Attack On Yemen | Video

Last Updated:December 28, 2024, 16:43 IST

WHO Chief Tedros Ghebreyesus and a UN team narrowly escaped an Israeli attack on the main airport of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Thursday.

WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus being rushed out of Sanaa airport's VIP lounge ahead of the Israeli attack. (Photo: X)

World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus shared a video of him barely escaping an Israeli attack on Yemen, just as he was about to board a flight there.

Israel unleashed a series of airstrikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa and the western city of Hodeidah on Thursday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens more. The airstrikes also struck Yemen’s main airport as a civilian Airbus 320 with hundreds of passengers was landing and a UN delegation was preparing to leave.

The video uploaded by Ghebreyesus showed him and about 15 others in the VIP lounge at the international airport rushing out of there mere minutes before an Israeli strike hit the airport’s control tower. The strike landed just 300 metres from the VIP lounge, marking a narrow escape that would have otherwise likely triggered another international incident.

“Thank you to all my friends, colleagues, and everyone who has wished me well during the ordeal in the past few days. I’m especially grateful to the colleagues and airport staff, who were selfless as they tried to protect me," Ghebreyesus said on X.

“We faced a very dangerous attack, but my UN colleagues and I are now safe. We successfully evacuated our wounded colleague to Amman, and he is stable. My heart goes out to our colleagues on the front lines and the civilians who face such danger every day," he added.

The WHO chief said he was back on his way to Geneva and UN’s top humanitarian official Julien Harneis told reporters that Ghebreyesus and the UN team, including an injured crew member, were able to depart for Jordan on Friday afternoon and that Ghebreyesus was heading back to Geneva.

Earlier, Ghebreyesus said the airport came under heavy bombardment and one of the UN 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."

The Israeli Army said it was not aware that the WHO chief or the UN delegation was present at the Sanaa airport on Thursday. The military said it attacked infrastructure used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels at the international airport in the capital Sanaa, as well as power stations and ports, alleging they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was in the country to discuss its worsening humanitarian crisis and to seek the release of about 50 people detained by the Houthis since June from the UN, nongovernmental organisations and civil society. As per the UN, about 18 million Yemeni civilians, about half the population, needed humanitarian assistance this year.

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, and disrupting one of the world’s main maritime routes.

Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest nation and has been engulfed in a 10-year civil war between the Houthi rebels, who control Sanaa and much of the country’s north, and the internationally recognised government forces in the south.

Meanwhile, 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.

(with agency inputs)

Sana, Yemen

News world 'Faced A Dangerous Attack, Safe Now': WHO Chief Posts Video Of Escaping Israeli Attack On Yemen | Video