The Israeli military said its air strikes targeted Houthi “military infrastructure” at Sanaa International Airport and the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, as well as infrastructure at the Red Sea ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Kanatib used to smuggle in Iranian weapons.
The Houthis’ military spokesman said only civilian facilities were hit and that the strikes resulted in fatalities and material damage.
The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency reported that three people were killed at Sanaa airport and that another three were killed in Hudaydah province.
However, the deputy transport minister of the government in Houthi-controlled Yemen, Yahya al-Sayani, put the death toll as four during a news conference on Friday.
He said Sanaa airport’s control tower, departure lounge and navigational equipment were hit and damaged, and accused Israel of violating international law and aviation regulations.
The strikes on the airport happened just as the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was about to board a UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) plane there.
A crew member of the UN plane was seriously injured and was flown to Jordan on Friday after undergoing surgery at a local hospital, according to Dr Tedros.
“Deepest gratitude to the UNHAS team for their service and swift evacuation from Yemen,” he wrote on X. “Attacks on civilians and humanitarians must stop, everywhere.”
The WHO chief had been leading a high-level delegation to Yemen to assess the humanitarian situation in a country that has the world’s highest levels of cholera and 80% of the population needs some form of aid. He had also been asked to try to negotiate the release of 16 UN personnel being detained by the Houthis.
It is normal practice for the UN to share full details of humanitarian flights with all relevant parties. However, the Israeli military told the Associated Press that it had not been aware that the UN delegation was at the airport.
WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said its delegation was “in contact with all relevant parties to ascertain the facts” surrounding the incident.
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