WHO leader says his team was at Yemen airport during Israeli attack
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he and his team were about to board a flight in Sana'a, Yemen, when the airport came under "aerial bombardment" on Thursday.
He and his WHO and UN colleagues are safe after the attack but "at least two people were reported killed at the airport," Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.
The air traffic control tower, departure lounge and runway at the airport were damaged, he added.
Ghebreyesus and his team were on a mission in Yemen to "negotiate the release of UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation in Yemen," the WHO leader said.
Targeting the Sana’a International Airport and other civilian infrastructure in Yemen is a "crime against all the Yemeni people," Houthi spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salam said in a statement following Israel's attacks.
"If the Zionist enemy thinks that its crimes will stop Yemen from supporting Gaza, it is delusional," Abdul Salam said.
The Israel Defense Forces said following Thursday's strikes that they were targeting "military infrastructure used by the Houthi terrorist regime for its military activities," including in the Sana'a International Airport.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in a statement Thursday that Israel will continue attacks against the Houthis to "cut off the terrorist arm of Iran's axis of evil" until the job is done.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also said in a statement Thursday that Israel will "hunt down all of the Houthis' leaders and we will strike them just as we have done in other places."
-ABC News' Victoria Beaule, Ahmed Baider and Dana Savir
