The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he and his colleagues had “narrowly escaped death” during Israeli airstrikes on an airport in Yemen.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told BBC Radio 4 in an interview that he felt “completely exposed” during the attack, which killed at least six people.
He and other UN staff were leaving Sanaa, in western Yemen, on Thursday after a trip to negotiate the release of UN prisoners and assess the humanitarian situation in the country, when the airport was hit.
The Israeli military said it had carried out “intelligence-led strikes on military targets” belonging to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
“It was very chaotic, people were running everywhere,” Dr Tedros said today.
He added that “there was no cover, so we were completely exposed. It was a matter of luck, otherwise if the missile had deviated just a little it could have been on our heads.”
“My colleague actually said, after all that, we narrowly escaped death,” he said.
The WHO chief, who has led the organization since 2017 and made regular public appearances during the Covid pandemic, said his presence at the airport was known to the public before the attack.
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 human being.”
