Israeli attacks on airport in Yemen leave 6 dead: WHO director was in the terminal

Israeli airstrikes hit the rebel-held international airport in Sanaa and other targets in Yemen on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, as the head of the U.N. World Health Organization said he and his team were preparing to fly.

Yemen’s civil aviation authority said the airport planned to reopen on Friday after the attacks it said occurred while the UN aircraft “was preparing for its scheduled flight.”

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The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it knew at the time that the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was there. Israel’s attack occurred a day after Iran-backed Houthi rebels called for the launch of a missile and two drones into Israel.

Yemen’s Houthis have intensified their attacks on Israel since late November, when it came into force a ceasefire between Israel and another Iranian-backed group, Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

The impact of the attacks

The Houthis’ Al-Masirah Television said that Israeli attacks killed six people, after earlier Houthi statements said two people were killed at the airport in the rebel-held capital, and another at the port of Ras Issa.

Attacks that targeted the airport, military installations and power stations in rebel areas They marked the second time since December 19 that Israel has hit targets in Yemen following rebel missile fire toward Israel.

In his last warning to the rebels, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will continue “until the job is done.”

“We are determined to cut off this branch of terrorism in the axis of Iranian evil“he said in a video.

UN turns on the alarms

The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres denounced the “escalation” in hostilities between Israel and the Houthis and described the attacks on the Sanaa airport as “especially alarming.”

He said that bombing transport infrastructure represented a threat to humanitarian operations in Yemen, where 80 percent of the population depends on aid. Tedros was in Yemen to seek the release of UN staff detained for months by the Houthis, and to assess the humanitarian situation.

He said he and other UN staff were about to board their flight when “the airport was bombed from the air.”

“The air traffic control tower, the departure hall, just a few meters from where we were, and the runway were damaged.“Tedros said in X, adding that he and United Nations staff were safe.

A witness told AFP that ‘More than six’ attacks hit airport in rebel-held capitalwith raids also targeting the adjacent Al-Dailami air base.

They also addressed a series of attacks on a power station in Hodeidaon the rebel-controlled coast, said a witness and Al-Masirah TV.

After the rebel attacks against Israel, Israeli strikes had already hit Hodeida twice this yeara major entry point for humanitarian aid to impoverished Yemen, which has been devastated for years by its own war.

On December 19, after rebels fired a missile toward Israel and severely damaged a school, Israel attacked targets in Sanaa for the first time. He said that The attacks were against ports and energy infrastructure that were “effectively contributing” to Houthi military actions.

Houthi media said those attacks killed nine people.

In the latest attacks, the Israeli army said that its “fighter aircraft carried out intelligence-based attacks on military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime.”

The targets included “military infrastructure” at the airport and power stations in Sanaa and Hodeida, as well as other facilities in Hodeida, Salif and the ports of Ras Kanatib, according to an Israeli statement.

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