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Tuesday 07 Jan 2025
LOCAL EDITION
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LOCAL EDITION
Israel bombs Yemen's Sanaa airport as WHO chief was about to board plane. (Photo/AFP)
A new round of Israeli air strikes targeted Houthis and multiple ports in Yemen, while the World Health Organization's director-general said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member wounded.
“The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge just a few meters from where we were and the runway was damaged,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X.
He added that he and his UN colleagues were safe.
“We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” he said, without mentioning the source of the bombardment.
UN spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the wounded person was with the UN Humanitarian Air Service.
At least three people were later reported killed and dozens wounded in the airport strike.
The UN team members left the airport and were “safe and sound” in Sanaa while the wounded crew member was being treated at a hospital, she said.
Tremblay said the damage assessment would be made on Friday morning to see whether the WHO chief and the UN team can leave Yemen.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the escalation in attacks between Yemen and Israel and described Thursday’s attacks as “especially alarming,” Tremblay said.
Israel’s army later told The Associated Press it wasn’t aware that the WHO chief or delegation was at the location in Yemen.
The Israeli military in a statement said it attacked infrastructure used by the Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hudaida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations.
The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths and showed broken windows, collapsed ceilings and a bloodstained floor and vehicle.
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Source: TRT
