By Dave Graham
ZURICH (Reuters) – The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday he was not sure he would survive an air strike on Yemen's airport carried out by Israel a day earlier during an attack by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. .
Speaking after his ordeal at Sanaa airport on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the blast that ripped through the building was so deafening that his ears were still ringing more than a day later.
Tedros said that it was soon clear that the airport was under attack, describing people who “ran in confusion” in the area after about four explosions, one of which was “shockingly” close to where he was sitting near the living room.
“I wasn't sure if I could survive because it was so close, just a few meters from where we were,” he told Reuters. “A slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit.”
Tedros said he and his colleagues were trapped at the airport for the next hour as what he thought were drones flying overhead, fueling concerns that they could open fire again. Among the debris, he and his colleagues saw pieces of missiles, he said.
“There was (no) shelter. Nothing. So you're just exposed, waiting for whatever happens,” he said.
Israel's attack on Yemen came after the Houthis repeatedly fired drones and missiles into Israel in what they described as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterward that Israel was “just getting started” with the Houthis.
The Houthi-controlled Saba News Agency said three people were killed in the attack on the airport and three were killed in Hodeidah, while another 40 were injured in the attack.
Speaking by phone from Jordan, where he was flying on Friday to help evacuate a seriously injured UN staffer from the airport for further treatment, Tedros said he had received no warning that Israel was about to strike the airport.
The injured man, who worked for the UN Humanitarian Air Service, is now “good” and in a stable condition, he said.
Tedros traveled to Yemen over Christmas to try to negotiate the release of UN staff and others held there. He admitted that he and his colleagues knew the trip was at risk because of the conflict between Israel and the Houthis.
But that was an opportunity to work for the release of UN staff who believed they should take it, said Tedros, a former Ethiopian foreign minister.
He said talks with the Yemeni authorities had gone well and he saw the possibility that the 16 UN staff and diplomatic and NGO staff held there could be released.
He denied involvement in the alleged attack but said his trip was shared publicly and expressed surprise that public infrastructure should have been targeted.
“So the airport has to be secured, whether I'm there or not,” he said, before realizing that there was nothing special about what he was dealing with in Yemen. “One of my colleagues said we narrowly escaped death. I'm just one person. So I sympathize with those who face the same thing every day. But it allowed me to feel the way they feel.”
“I am worried about our world, where it is headed,” Tedros added, urging world leaders to work together to end global conflict. “I have never… as far as I remember, seen the world really in such a dangerous state.”