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 told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that he felt “completely exposed” during the attack, which killed at least six people.
He and other U.N. staff had left Sanaa in 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-backed attacks on military targets” of the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
“It was very chaotic, you know, people were confused and running everywhere,” Dr. Tedros on Saturday.
He added that there was “no protection, so we were completely exposed. It’s a matter of luck, otherwise the missile, if it was even slightly deflected, could have hit our head.”
“So my colleague actually said that after all of this we narrowly escaped death,” he said.
The WHO chief – who has led the organization since 2017 and made regular public appearances during the Covid pandemic – said his presence at the airport was publicly known before the strike.
But he added: “It doesn’t matter whether I’m there or not. Every civilian life is life – my life is no better than anyone else’s.”
Dr. Tedros said the airport was 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” with which they attacked Israel, as well as to welcome “senior Iranian officials.”
“This is another example of the Houthis exploiting civilian infrastructure for military purposes,” it said.
According to the Houthi-run Saba news agency, three people were killed and another 30 injured at the airport.
It said three more people were killed and 10 injured in other attacks targeting power plants and a port in the region.
It is unclear whether the fatalities were civilians or Houthi rebels.
The Iran-backed group called the attacks “barbaric” and “aggressive.” She promised to continue attacks on Israel until the conflict in Gaza 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 that killed around 1,200 people.
Israel has responded to Houthi attacks with intermittent attacks.
On Saturday, the Houthis said they had launched an attack on the Nevatim air base in central Israel. The IDF said a missile from Yemen was intercepted by the air force before it entered Israeli airspace.
The Houthis are an armed political and religious group supported by Iran. The group has ruled large parts of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since the fall of the internationally recognized government in 2015.
