UN health chief at Yemen airport during Israeli strikes

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 27, ARMENPRESS. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN staff were at Yemen's international airport in Sanaa on Thursday during Israeli air strikes which are reported to have killed at least six people, the BBC reports. 

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said they were about to board a plane when the attacks began.

Houthi-run Saba news agency said three people were killed at the airport and 30 injured. It said another three people were killed and 10 wounded in the western Hodeidah province. It described the attacks - which also hit power stations and ports - as "barbaric". Israel's military said it carried out "intelligence-based strikes on military targets".

In a statement on X, Dr Tedros said he was in Yemen "to negotiate the release of UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation" in the country. He provided no further details about who the UN detainees were.

Referring to the strikes on Sanaa's airport, he said: "The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge - just a few meters from where we were - and the runway were damaged.

"We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave," Dr Tedros added.

UN Secretary General António Guterres called the strikes "especially alarming".

"I regret the recent escalation between Yemen and Israel, and remain deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region." he wrote on X.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its "fighter jets conducted intelligence-based strikes on military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and inland Yemen".