A team from the World Health Organization (WHO), including its director-general, came under fire in an Israeli attack on the international airport in Yemen's capital on Thursday.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured.
"The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge – just a few meters from where we were – and the runway were damaged," Ghebreyesus said on the social media platform X.
He added that he and his U.N. colleagues were safe.
"We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave," he said, without mentioning the source of the bombardment.
U.N. spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the injured person was with the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service.
The new round of Israeli airstrikes targeted the Yemeni capital, multiple ports and infrastructure. They came several days after launches by Iran-backed Houthi rebels that set off sirens in Israel.
The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by the Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations.
Israel's military didn't immediately respond to questions about Tedros' post but issued a statement saying it had "capabilities to strike very far from Israel's territory – precisely, powerfully, and repetitively."
The Houthis-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths. Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes.
The U.S. military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days.
The U.N. has noted that the targeted ports are important entryways for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014.
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 attacks by Houthis.
The Houthis have also been targeting Israeli cargo ships or those associated with Tel Aviv in the Red Sea with missiles and drones in a show of support with the Gaza Strip, where nearly 45,400 people have been killed in Israel's genocidal war since Oct. 7, 2023.
Meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in Gaza overnight, the territory's Health Ministry said.
The strike hit a car outside Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings visible on the back doors. Sobbing young men attended the funeral. The bodies were wrapped in shrouds, with blue press vests draped over them.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says 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. 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.
Health authorities say more than half the fatalities in Gaza have been women and children.
The offensive has caused widespread destruction and hunger 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.
