Israeli airstrikes hit a Yemen airport as a jet with a whole lot onboard was touchdown

A police officer walks previous particles exterior the constructing of Sanaa Airport, sooner or later after Israeli airstrikes hit the airport, in Sanaa, Yemen, December 27, 2024.
| Picture Credit score: Reuters

Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen’s foremost airport as a civilian Airbus 320 with a whole lot of passengers on board was touchdown and a U.N. delegation was ready to go away, the U.N.’s prime humanitarian official in Yemen stated on Friday (December 27, 2024).

Julien Harneis advised U.N. reporters that essentially the most horrifying factor concerning the two airstrikes on Thursday (December 26, 2024) 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 pinnacle of the U.N. World Well being Group.

Destruction of the airport management tower

Moderately, it was the destruction of the airport management tower as a Yemenia Airways aircraft was taxiing in after touching down.

“Happily, that aircraft was capable of land safely and the passengers have been capable of disembark, nevertheless it might have been far, far worse,” stated Harneis, who was with WHO Director-Basic Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus within 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. group have been exterior the constructing.

“Not solely clearly did we have now zero indication of any potential airstrikes, however we can not keep in mind the final time there have been airstrikes in Sanaa throughout daylight,” Harneis stated in a video information convention from Sanaa.

The U.N. stated at the very least three individuals have 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 critical leg damage from shrapnel and misplaced lots 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 roughly 40 minutes to establish 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. aircraft with Tedros and the U.N. group, together with the injured crew member, was capable of 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,

U.N. delegation on the Sanaa airport

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who management Sanaa and far of the nation’s north, have gone after Israel because it began attacking Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023 assaults by Gaza’s Hamas militants on southern Israel. The Houthis have attacked ships within the Purple Sea, disrupting one of many world’s foremost maritime routes, and just lately stepped up missile and drone assaults on Israel. Early Saturday, the Israeli Air Drive reported intercepting one more missile from Yemen, as sirens woke Israelis round Jerusalem and the Lifeless Sea.

Israel has escalated its response.

The Israeli military stated it wasn’t conscious that the WHO chief or U.N. delegation have 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 navy, and is used for transporting U.N. and different humanitarian staff, and for one civilian flight — Yemenia to and from Amman, Jordan. The flight operates on account of a global settlement, and hundreds of Yemenis have used the flight to get superior medical therapy overseas, he stated.

Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest nation and has been engulfed in a 10-year civil struggle 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 12 months, and the U.N. expects the quantity to extend to 19 million subsequent 12 months due to the worsening economic system.

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 way 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 decreased 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, international minister and a member of the group’s Supreme Political Council. He stated they obtained commitments on the detainees’ attainable launch and a pathway to it, and on circumstances beneath which they’re being held.