Hello there, welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service. We're coming to you live from London. I'm Ben James.

The head of the World Health Organisation has told the BBC that he assumes Israel knew he was at Yemen's International airports on Thursday when they hit it with

airstrikes. The presence of someone with his global profile has thrown a new spotlight on the

escalating conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Houthi group. After months of Houthi attacks,

including on Tel Aviv a week ago, Israel says it was targeting military

infrastructure at the airport in Sarnar. Footage from inside a terminal building appears to show

passengers abandoning trolleys piled with suitcases and running outside. The WHO is a UN agency

and its head, Dr. Tedros at Hanam Gabriyasas was in the airport on a trip

to negotiate the release of UN staff members detained by the Houthis. He's been giving his account

of what's happened to the BBC's Sean Farrington. We didn't want to miss the window of opportunity

we got in order to have our colleagues be released from

detention. And, you know, it's a holiday season also when almost everybody is having

resting. But we prefer to prioritize our colleagues. And that's why I accepted the mission

and representing the Secretary General and traveled to negotiate.

And the discussion was actually good, and we agreed on very important four points for their release.

But then on Thursday, after we concluded our mission, left for the airport, and while waiting

to board, and almost close to walking to the airplane, actually, to board, we heard a heavy

explosion nearby.

And then, I think, repeated,

I saw actually a video that surfaced now,

colleagues and people from the airport actually took me out of the room we were.

What do you remember, sorry to interrupt you,

...