Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza and Yemen airport where WHO chief was about to board plane
The Israeli military said airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital of Sanaa and the port city of Hodeida. The World Health Organization's director-general said the bombardment occurred as he was about to board a flight in Sanaa, injuring a crew member. Israel's army later told The Associated Press it wasn't aware that the WHO chief was at the location.
"The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged," WHO's Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, adding that he and his colleagues were safe. "We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave." He didn't mention the source of the bombardment.
Tedros said at least two people were killed in the attack at the airport. On Friday, he said in a short message posted on social media that, along with the injured member of his flight crew, the WHO entourage had been evacuated to Jordan, where the wounded United Nations Humanitarian Air Service member would receive further medical treatment.
"Deepest gratitude to the UNHAS team for their service and swift evacuation from #Yemen, where we were on a UN mission to negotiate for the release of detained colleagues," Tedros said, adding: "Attacks on civilians and humanitarians must stop, everywhere."
According to BBC News, video from inside the airport showed panicked people running out of the terminal immediately after the strike.
The Israeli strikes on Yemen came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad's regime and others learned."
The Israel Defense Forces said targets included "military infrastructure used by the Houthi terrorist regime for its military activities in both the Sana'a International Airport and the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations," as well as other military infrastructure at several ports.
The Iran-backed Houthis' media outlet confirmed the strikes in a Telegram post but gave no immediate details. Houthi media said three people were killed in the strikes and 14 injured.
The U.S. military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen for months, including in recent days, in response to the group's regular missile and drone attacks on international commercial and military ships and on Israel. Israeli officials said yet another Houthi-launched missile was intercepted by air defense systems Friday before it reached Israeli territory.
The United Nations has noted that the rebel-held ports in Yemen are important entryways for humanitarian aid to the impoverished nation. According to BBC News, Tedros was in Yemen to assess the humanitarian situation there, in addition to trying to negotiate the release of detained U.N. staff in the country.
Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in Tel Aviv. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israeli strike outside hospital in Gaza
Meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinians outside a hospital in the Gaza Strip overnight, the territory's Health Ministry said. Gaza officials said they were journalists working for a local news outlet. The Israeli military said they were militants posing as reporters.
The strike hit a car outside Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The Palestinian Journalists Union said the victims were working for the local news outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group, Reuters reported.
Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and took part in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, which ignited the war. The Israeli military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said that intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives found by soldiers in Gaza, had confirmed that all five were affiliated with the group.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian militant groups operate political, media and charitable operations in addition to their armed wings.
Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings visible on the back doors. Sobbing young men attended the funeral outside the hospital. The bodies were wrapped in shrouds, with blue press vests draped over them.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says that more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel hasn't allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds.
Israel has banned the pan-Arab Al Jazeera network and accused six of its Gaza reporters of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its war coverage, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations.
Separately, Israel's military said that a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed during fighting in central Gaza early Thursday. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation more than a year ago.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border in an attack on nearby army bases, farming communities and a music festival. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. About 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel's air and ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. The offensive has caused widespread destruction and driven around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter.
Also Thursday, people mourned eight Palestinians killed by Israeli military operations in and around the city of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said troops opened fire after militants attacked soldiers, and said it was aware of uninvolved civilians who were harmed in the raid.