WHO chief describes ordeal during Israeli strike on Yemen airport By Reuters

By Dave Graham

ZURICH (Reuters) – The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday he was not sure he would survive an Israeli airstrike on Yemen’s main airport a day earlier in a series of attacks on the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

After his ordeal at Sana’a International Airport on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the blasts that rocked the building were so deafening that his ears were still ringing more than a day later.

Tedros said it quickly became clear that the airport was under attack, describing people “running restlessly” around the area after about four explosions, one of which was “alarmingly” close to where he was sitting near the departure hall.

“I wasn’t sure I could actually survive because it was so close to where we were,” he told Reuters. “A slight deflection could have resulted in a direct hit.”

Tedros said he and his colleagues remained at the airport for about an hour because he believed drones were flying overhead, raising concerns that they might open fire again.He said he and colleagues were among the debris Missile fragments were seen.

“There was no shelter at all. So you’re just exposed, just waiting for something to happen,” he said.

The Israeli strikes in Yemen came after the Houthis repeatedly fired drones and rockets at Israel in what they described as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said Israel was “just getting started” with the Houthis.

The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said three people were killed in the airstrikes, three were killed in Hodeida and 40 others were wounded in the attacks.

Speaking by phone from Jordan, where he flew on Friday to help evacuate a seriously wounded UN colleague at the airport for further medical care, Tedros said he had received no warning that Israel might strike the airport.

The injured man, who worked for the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service, was now “good” and in a stable condition, he said.

Tedros traveled to Yemen over Christmas to try to negotiate the release of UN staff and others held there, admitting that he and colleagues knew the trip was risky in light of high tensions between Israel and the Houthis.

But it was such an opportunity to work for the release of the UN staff that they felt they had to take it, said Tedros, Ethiopia’s former foreign minister.

He said that talks with the Yemeni authorities had gone well and that he saw the possibility that the 16 UN staff, as well as staff from diplomatic missions and NGOs there, could be released.

He declined to assign blame for the attack, but said his route had been made public and expressed surprise that civilian infrastructure should be targeted.

“So the civilian airport should be protected whether I’m there or not,” he said, before noting that there was “nothing special” about what he encountered in Yemen one said we narrowly escaped death. So I feel for those who face the same thing every day. But at least it made me feel the way they do.”

“I’m worried about where our world is going,” Tedros added, calling on world leaders to work together to end global conflicts is”.