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Saturday, December 28, 2024
UN official denies Israeli claim Yemen airport targeted in airstrike has military use
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The top UN official for humanitarian aid in Yemen, who narrowly dodged an Israeli airstrike on Sanaa’s airport yesterday, denies that the facility has any military purpose.
Israel said that it was targeting “military infrastructure” in the raids and that targets around the country were used by Houthis to “smuggle Iranian weapons” and bring in senior Iranian officials. The strikes came in response to repeated ballistic missile and drone attacks on Israel which have ramped up in recent weeks.
UN humanitarian coordinator Julien Harneis says the airport “is a civilian location that is used by the United Nations.”
“It’s used by the International Committee of the Red Cross, it is used for civilian flights –- that is its purpose,” he tels reporters by video link from Yemen.
“Parties to the conflict have an obligation to ensure that they are not striking civilian targets,” he adds. “The obligation is on them, not on us. We don’t need to prove we’re civilians.”
Harneis describes how he, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and 18 other UN staff, were caught up in the attack, which he says also took place as a packed airliner was touching down nearby.
One UN staffer was seriously wounded in the strikes, which destroyed the air traffic control facility, Harneis says. The rest of the team was bundled into armored vehicles for safety.
“There was one airstrike approximately 300 meters (985 feet) to the south of us and another airstrike approximately 300 meters to the north of us,” he said.
“What was most frightening about that air strike wasn’t the effect on us -– it’s that the air strikes took place… as a civilian airliner from Yemenia Air, carrying hundreds of Yemenis, was about to land,” he says.
“In fact, that airliner from Yemenia Air was landing, taxiing in, when the air traffic control was destroyed.”
Although the plane “was able to land safely… it could have been far, far worse.”
He says the Israeli strike came with “zero indication of any potential air strikes and that the airport is “absolutely vital” to continued humanitarian aid for Yemen. “If that airport is disabled, it will paralyze humanitarian operations.”
The United Nations has labeled Yemen “the largest humanitarian crisis in the world,” with 24.1 million people in need of humanitarian aid and protection.
The Times of Israel Community.