The pinnacle of the World Well being Group (WHO) and different UN employees had been at Yemen’s worldwide airport in Sanaa on Thursday throughout an Israeli air strike.
In a social media submit, WHO Director-Normal Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mentioned he and employees had been about to board a aircraft when the airport got here below aerial bombardment.
“One among our aircraft’s crew members was injured,” he wrote, including that two individuals on the airport had been killed.
The strikes – which additionally hit energy stations and ports – have killed at the least three individuals with greater than a dozen injured, in line with Houthi-run media. The Iran-backed insurgent group described the assaults as “barbaric” after Israel claimed duty for the strikes.
Dr Tedros mentioned he was unharmed after the bombardment [Getty Images]
It’s unclear whether or not the fatalities had been civilians or Houthi rebels.
In an announcement, the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) mentioned its “fighter jets carried out intelligence-based strikes on army targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and inland Yemen”.
It focused “army infrastructure” at Sanaa Worldwide Airport in addition to the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib energy stations, and websites within the Al-Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports on the west coast, the IDF mentioned.
In feedback shortly after the strikes, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned it might “proceed to chop off the phobia arm of the Iranian axis of evil till we full the job”, including “we’re solely simply beginning with [the Houthis]”.
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthis’ supreme revolutionary committee, referred to as the strikes “barbaric” and “aggressive”.
He mentioned that “confrontations with American and Israeli vanity” will proceed till the battle in Gaza stops.
A number of individuals injured by the strikes on the airport in Sanaa informed Houthi-run broadcaster Al Masirah that the runway was struck 3 times earlier than the airport’s management tower was additionally hit.
One man, who recognized himself as Dr Abbas Rajeh, mentioned the police hospital he works in handled 10 sufferers after the assaults – one had already died, one other was in crucial situation, and others had minor accidents or damaged bones.
Iran described the strikes as a “clear violation of worldwide peace and safety”.
Houthi rebels have been attacking Israel because the first months of the Gaza struggle, which started in October 2023.
A Houthi missile strike injured greater than a dozen individuals in Israel final week.
Israel has carried out intermittent strikes towards Houthis in retaliation.
Earlier this week, Israel’s defence minister mentioned the nation was making ready to “strike arduous” on the Houthis, warning it might “decapitate” the group’s management.
The Houthis are an armed political and non secular group backed by Iran. The group has dominated massive components of western Yemen, together with the capital Sanaa, since ousting the internationally recognised authorities in 2015.
