The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he and his colleagues “narrowly missed death” when they were hit by an Israeli airstrike at an airport in Yemen.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he felt “totally exposed” during the attack, which killed at least six, in an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
He and other UN officials were leaving Sanaa, in western Yemen, on Thursday after a trip to negotiate the release of UN detainees and assess the humanitarian situation in the country when the airport was hit.
Israel's military said it carried out “intelligence-based strikes on military targets” belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
“It was very chaotic, you know, people were in disarray and running everywhere,” Dr Tedros said on Saturday.
He added that “there was no cover, so we were completely exposed. It's a matter of luck, otherwise if the missile deviated ever so slightly, it could have been on our heads”.
“So my colleague actually said that after all that we narrowly missed death,” he said.
The head of the WHO – who has led the organization since 2017. and regularly appeared in public during the Covid pandemic – said his presence at the airport was public before the strike.
But he added: “It doesn't matter if I'm there or not. Every civilian life is a life – my life is no better than another person's.”
Dr Tedros said the airport was a civilian facility and therefore should not have been attacked by Israel.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the airport was used by the Houthi rebels “to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region”, which they used to attack Israel, as well as to host “senior Iranian officials”.
“This is yet another example of the Houthis' exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes,” it added.
The Houthi-run Saba news agency reported that three people were killed at the airport and another 30 were wounded.
It said three more people were killed and 10 wounded in other strikes targeting power plants and a port in the region.
It is not clear whether the dead were civilians or Houthi rebels.
The Iran-backed group described the attacks as “barbaric” and “aggressive”. He vowed to continue striking Israel until the conflict in the Gaza Strip ceases.
Houthi rebels have been attacking Israel since the first months of the war, which began in October 2023, when Palestinian fighters launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people.
Israel responded to Houthi attacks with periodic strikes.
On Saturday, the Houthis said they struck the Nevatim air base in central Israel. The IDF said a missile from Yemen was intercepted by the air force before it crossed into Israeli airspace.
The Houthis are an armed political and religious group supported by Iran. The group has ruled large parts of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since ousting the internationally recognized government in 2015.