Israel’s military forces struck multiple targets it claims were linked to the Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including the Sanaa International Airport, just moments before the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was preparing to board a plane there, Reuters reported.
Israel’s strikes killed at least six people and injured a crew member of the plane Ghebreyesus had been about to board. Three were killed in the airport and three in the Hodeidah port, while 40 people were injured in the attacks, the local Saba news agency reported.
Israel’s military said it had also targeted military infrastructure at the strategic ports of Salif and Ras Kanatib on Yemen’s west coast, as well as two of Yemen’s power stations, the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib plants.
Ghebreyesus tweeted on X, “The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge—just a few meters from where we were—and the runway were damaged.”
Noting that he and his UN colleagues were not harmed during the strike, he wrote, “We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave.”
U.N. spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the injured crew member was a member of the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service.