WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a press conference with the Association of Accredited Correspondents to the United Nations (ACANU) at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, December 10, 2024.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
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FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images/AFP
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he and his United Nations colleagues “narrowly escaped death” at Yemen’s main airport when Israeli airstrikes targeted the facility.
Speaking to the BBC, Tedros described the scene at the airport during Thursday’s attack as “very chaotic.”
“People were in disarray and running everywhere,” he said. Radio 4 today program Saturday.
The WHO chief said he and his team were “completely exposed” and that it was “a matter of luck, otherwise if the missile had deviated slightly it could have fallen on our heads.”
Tedros had been while waiting to board a flight in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, when the Israeli missile struck. When the airport was attacked, a member of the UN plane’s crew was injured. At least three other people at the airport were reportedly killed.
Video from the airport shows UN officials trying to get Tedros to safety.
The Israeli army said The attack targeted infrastructure used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Iran. Israel said it did not know the UN delegation was at Sanaa airport at the time of the strike.