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The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has said he and his colleagues “narrowly escaped death” while caught in an Israeli airstrike on an airport in Yemen.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he felt “completely exposed” during the attack, which killed at least six people, in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He and other U.N. staff were leaving Sanaa, 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 attacked.
Israel’s military said it carried out “intelligence-based attacks against military targets” belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
“It was very chaotic, people were disorderly and running everywhere,” Dr. Tedros said on Saturday.
He added: “There was no shelter, so we were completely exposed. It’s a matter of luck, otherwise if the missile deflected slightly it could have landed on our heads.”
“So my colleague said we narrowly escaped death after all,” 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 public knowledge before the strike.
But he added: “It doesn’t matter if I’m there or not. Any civilian life is life; my life is no better than that of another human being.”
Dr. Tedros said the airport is a civilian facility and therefore should not have been attacked by Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the airport had been used by Houthi rebels “to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region” which they used to attack Israel, as well as to receive “senior Iranian officials.”
“This is yet another example of the Houthis exploiting civilian infrastructure for military purposes,” he added.
The Houthi-run Saba news agency said three people were killed at the airport and 30 others were wounded.
Three other people were killed and 10 wounded in other attacks, which targeted power plants and a port in the region, he added.
It is unclear whether the victims were civilians or Houthi rebels.
The Iran-backed group described the attacks as “barbaric” and “aggressive.” He vowed to continue launching attacks against Israel until the conflict in the Gaza Strip ends.
Houthi rebels have been attacking Israel since the first months of the war, which began in October 2023 when Palestinian militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing about 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 crossing Israeli airspace.
The Houthis are an armed political and religious group backed by Iran. The group has ruled much of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since it overthrew the internationally recognized government in 2015.
