The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he and his colleagues “narrowly escaped death” when they were caught in an Israeli airstrike on an airport in Yemen.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he felt “completely exposed” during the attack, which left at least six people dead, in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He and other U.N. staff were leaving Sanaa, western Yemen, on Thursday after a trip to negotiate the release of U.N. detainees and assess the humanitarian situation in the country when the airport was hit.
The Israeli military said it carried out “intelligence-driven strikes on military targets” belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
“It was very chaotic, you know, people were in disarray and running everywhere,” Dr Tedros said on Saturday.
He added that there was “no shelter, so we were completely exposed. It’s a matter of luck, otherwise if the missile had deviated a little, it could have fallen on our heads.”
“So my colleague said that after all that, we narrowly escaped death,” he said.
The WHO chief – who has led the organization since 2017 and has made regular public appearances during the Covid pandemic – said his presence at the airport was public knowledge before the strike.
But he added: “It doesn’t matter whether I’m there or not. All civilian life is life – my life is no better than that of another human being.”
Dr Tedros said the airport is a civilian facility and therefore should not have been attacked by Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the airport was used by Houthi rebels “to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region” which they used to attack Israel, as well as to host “senior Iranian officials “.
“This is a new example of the Houthis’ exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes,” the statement added.
The Houthi-run Saba news agency said three people were killed at the airport and 30 others injured.
Three other people were killed and ten others injured in other strikes, which targeted power plants and a port in the region.
It is unclear whether the victims were civilians or Houthi rebels.
The Iran-backed group called the attacks “barbaric” and “aggressive.” He pledged to continue launching strikes against Israel until the conflict in the Gaza Strip ends.
Houthi rebels have been attacking Israel since the early months of the war, which began in October 2023 when Palestinian militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people.
Israel responded to Houthi attacks with intermittent strikes.
On Saturday, the Houthis announced that they had launched a strike on the Nevatim airbase in central Israel. The Israeli military said a missile coming from Yemen was intercepted by the air force before entering Israeli airspace.
The Houthis are an armed political and religious group supported by Iran. The group has ruled much of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since the overthrow of the internationally recognized government in 2015.
