The director-general of the World Health Organisation was caught up in a wave of Israeli air strikes on Yemen on Thursday.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he had been about to board a flight at Sana’a International Airport when it came under attack. A crew member on the plane was injured, he said.
The Israeli military said its warplanes struck “Houthi terror regime” targets at Sana’a airport, as well as military infrastructure at the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations.
Air strikes also hit military infrastructure in the Al-Hudaydah, Salif, and Ras Issa ports on the western coast, it added.
In a statement, Mr Ghebreyesus said: “As we were about to board our flight from Sana’a, about two hours ago, the airport came under aerial bombardment. One of our plane’s crew members was injured.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge – just a few meters from where we were – and the runway were damaged.”
The Houthis are currently the last of Iran’s proxies in the Middle East still attacking Israel in solidarity with terror groups in Gaza after the Israel Defense Forces inflicted a series of devastating blows against Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Iran and Hezbollah-backed regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria was overthrown a fortnight ago by rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
The expansive strikes against key infrastructure in Yemen suggest a new push against Iran’s proxies in the region.
In a video released after the attacks, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, vowed to continue attacks on the Houthi rebels “until the job is done”. He said: “We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil.”
Iran has supported the Houthis financially and militarily for years, providing the terror group with its ballistic missiles, but the recent events in the Middle East have left Tehran weakened.
Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday: “The Houthis will also learn what Hamas, Hezbollah, the Assad regime and others have learned, and this will also take time. This lesson will be learned across the Middle East, I tell you, in those days at this season.”
Pressure has been growing on his government after four Houthi ballistic missile attacks on Israel in the past week, one of which, south of Tel Aviv, injured 16 people.
According to the IDF, the Houthi rebels were using the sites to “transfer Iranian weapons to the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials”. The IDF added: “This is a further example of the Houthis’ exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes.”
Three people were killed in the strikes, Al Masirah, a Houthi-run TV station, reported, adding that 14 others were wounded.
People were filmed running through the airport’s terminal while an air raid siren blared, and a large smoke plume billowed above a building.
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Israel and the United Nations have long been at odds over Gaza, and several of the UN’s agencies have condemned its actions in the territory on the world stage.
The WHO has been particularly critical of Israeli strikes on hospitals in Gaza, and in January Mr Ghebreyesus broke down in tears as he described the “hellish” conditions there.
Israel maintains that its strikes target Hamas and other terror groups, and that the conditions in Gaza are caused by the Palestinian groups that control it.
There was nothing to suggest that Israel deliberately targeted the airport while the WHO chief was there.
