TANZANIA – Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s main airport as a civilian Airbus 320 with lots of of passengers on board was touchdown and a U.N. delegation was ready to depart, the U.N.’s prime humanitarian official in Yemen stated Friday.
Julien Harneis advised U.N. reporters that essentially the most scary factor concerning the two airstrikes on Thursday wasn’t their impact on him and about 15 others within the VIP lounge on the worldwide airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, together with the top of the U.N. World Well being Group.
Quite, it was the destruction of the airport management tower as a Yemenia Airways airplane was taxiing in after touching down.
“Thankfully, that airplane was in a position to land safely and the passengers had been in a position to disembark, but it surely might have been far, far worse,” stated Harneis, who was with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in the lounge.
He stated one airstrike landed roughly 300 meters (330 yards) south of the VIP lounge and one other about 300 meters to the north round 4:45 p.m., whereas about 5 members of the U.N. workforce had been outdoors the constructing.
“Not solely clearly did we now have zero indication of any potential airstrikes, however we can not bear in mind the final time there have been airstrikes in Sanaa throughout daytime,” Harneis stated in a video information convention from Sanaa.
The U.N. stated a minimum of three individuals had been killed and dozens injured within the strike. Among the many injured was a crew member from the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service, which was about to fly the U.N. delegation of some 20 individuals out of Sanaa.
He suffered a severe leg damage from shrapnel and misplaced plenty of blood, Harneis stated.
Instantly after the airstrikes, Harneis stated, U.N. safety officers moved the delegation out of the VIP constructing and into 5 armored vehicles the place they waited for about 40 minutes to determine what occurred and assist the injured crew member.
He was taken to a hospital in Sanaa and underwent 4 hours of surgical procedure whereas the remainder of the delegation spent the night time in a U.N. compound, Harneis stated. The U.N. airplane with Tedros and the U.N. workforce, together with the injured crew member, was in a position to depart for Jordan on Friday afternoon – with out an working management tower.
The United Nations stated the injured crew member was taken to a hospital in Jordan, and Tedros was heading again to Geneva, the place WHO is predicated,
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who management Sanaa and far of the nation’s north, have gone after Israel since it started attacking Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023 assaults by Gaza’s Hamas militants on southern Israel. The Houthis have attacked ships within the Crimson Sea, disrupting one of many world’s predominant maritime routes, and lately stepped up missile and drone attacks on Israel.
Israel has escalated its response.
The Israeli military stated it wasn’t conscious that the WHO chief or U.N. delegation had been on the Sanaa airport on Thursday. Israel stated it bombed the airport as a result of it’s utilized by the Houthis and Iran.
Harneis responded, stressing that the airport is civilian, not army, and is used for transporting U.N. and different humanitarian employees, and for one civilian flight — Yemenia to and from Amman, Jordan. The flight operates on account of a world settlement, and hundreds of Yemenis have used the flight to get superior medical remedy overseas, he stated.
Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest nation and has been engulfed in a 10-year civil conflict between the Houthi rebels, who management Sanaa and far of the nation’s north, and the internationally acknowledged authorities forces within the south.
Tedros was within the nation to debate its worsening humanitarian disaster and to hunt the discharge of about 50 individuals detained by the Houthis since June from the U.N., nongovernmental organizations and civil society.
Harneis stated 18 million Yemenis — about half the nation’s inhabitants — want humanitarian help this yr, and the U.N. expects the quantity to extend to 19 million subsequent yr due to the worsening economy.
Along with airstrikes on the Sanaa airport, Israel has been attacking the nation’s key port of Hodeida, in western Yemen.
Harneis stated Yemen depends on imports by means of Hodeida for 80% of its meals and greater than 90% of its medical provides to the north.
A current Israeli airstrike destroyed two tugboats and is estimated to have diminished the harbor’s capability by 50%, the U.N. official stated, whereas injury from Thursday’s airstrikes hasn’t been assessed but.
As for the detainees, Harneis stated he joined the WHO chief at conferences with the Houthi prime minister, overseas minister and a member of the group’s Supreme Political Council. He stated they obtained commitments on the detainees’ doable launch and a pathway to it, and on situations beneath which they’re being held.
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