The head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Saturday that he narrowly escaped death during Israeli strikes on Thursday on the airport in the capital of Yemen, held by Houthi rebels.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the BBC that his ears were still ringing from Thursday's attack as he prepared to board a plane in Sanaa.
"The noise was so loud [...] so deafening, actually. I still have ringing in my ears. It's been over 24 hours now. I don't know if it affected my ear," he said. "The departure lounge next to us was hit, then the control tower. If the missile had deviated just a little bit, it could have fallen on our heads."
The Israeli strikes on Thursday targeted the Saana airport, the Hodeida harbour, weapons storages and power plants in the country. According to Israel, the infrastructure is used by the Houthi regime to transfer Iranian weapons.
Despite Israeli warnings, the regime has continued to launch missiles against central Israel almost every night during the last week, sending millions of people to shelters in the middle of the night. All missiles besides one were intercepted outside Israel. A new missile was launched early Friday morning.
The Houthi regime is the last of Iran’s proxies in the Middle East and the most independent of them that continue to fire missiles against Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza where the war still continues. Judging by the defiant statements by the regime, it is not like to be deterred by the Israeli air strikes.
The Israeli government risks derailing on-going talks with Hamas on a hostage deal because of its refusal to end the war and withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis, which control the capital and large swathes of Yemen fought for years a war against Saudi Arabia which devastated the country and caused a humanitarian disaster. Following the Israel-Hamas war, the Houthis started also to attack merchant ships in the Red Sea and disrupt the freedom of navigation there.
The WHO chief said the protection of civilian facilities under international law must be respected. "It doesn’t matter if I was there or not […] This is a civilian facility, it must be protected, in line with international law," he insisted.
Tedros was visiting Yemen on behalf of UN chief Antonio Guterres, as part of a mission to secure the release of detained UN staff and assess the health and humanitarian situation in the war-torn country.
