Israel attacks airport in Yemen – WHO chief on site

In the civil war-torn country of Yemen, six people were killed in Israeli attacks on the international airport in the capital Sanaa and other targets on Thursday, according to the Houthi militia. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was at Sanaa airport during the attack, was unhurt.

A crew member was injured in the attack, WHO boss Tedros said on the online service X. However, he and other UN representatives survived the attack unscathed. The UN put the number of deaths in the airport attacks at three and “dozens more” were injured.

Tedros traveled to Yemen to demand the release of imprisoned UN employees and to gain an insight into the humanitarian situation in the country. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a question about whether it was aware that the WHO chief was at the airport at the time of the attack.

The Houthis-controlled airport was the target of “more than six” attacks, an eyewitness told AFP. Yemen’s Civil Aviation Authority said the attacks occurred as a UN aircraft was “preparing for its scheduled flight.” The plan is to reopen the airport on Friday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the “escalation” of fighting. “Today’s Israeli airstrikes on Sanaa International Airport, Red Sea ports and power plants in Yemen are particularly alarming,” a spokesman for Guterres said.

The Israeli shelling was preceded by attacks on Israel by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. On Saturday, 16 people were injured in a Houthi attack on Tel Aviv. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then threatened that the Houthis would “pay dearly” for this. On Thursday, Netanyahu said his country would continue its attacks on the Houthi rebels until “the job is done.” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened that Israel would “hunt down all Houthi leaders – no one will escape us.”

According to the Houthi television channel Al-Masirah, a power plant in the port city of Hodeida was also shelled. Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam condemned the attacks as “a Zionist crime against the entire Yemeni people.”

The Israeli army said fighter jets had carried out attacks on military targets “of the terrorist Houthi regime” based on intelligence. This would have included “military infrastructure” at the airport and power plants in Sanaa and Hodeida. The targets attacked were used by the Houthis “to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and to allow high-ranking Iranian representatives to enter the region.”

Meanwhile, according to the military, Israeli air defense intercepted another rocket fired from Yemen during the night. It was said that it was shot down outside its own borders. The warning sirens had blared again in several areas in central Israel. The sirens were triggered because of possible debris as a result of the shooting.

The Houthis control large parts of the civil war in Yemen. Like the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, they belong to the “axis of resistance” led by Iran and directed against Israel.

Since the beginning of the Gaza war triggered by the major Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the Houthi militia has repeatedly fired rockets at Israel. Since then, it has also been attacking ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden – according to its own statements “out of solidarity” with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Iran condemned Thursday’s Israeli attacks as a “clear violation of international peace and security.” The Islamist Hamas spoke of “aggression” against its “brothers from Yemen”.