Critically ill Yemeni children in need of medical care are to be evacuated from rebel-held Sanaa on Monday, in what the United Nations said it hopes will be the first of many mercy flights. Seven young patients and their families gathered at Sanaa airport, which has been closed to commercial flights since 2016, clutching their transport documents ahead of their journey to the Jordanian capital Amman. “This is the first of what we hope and believe will be many flights,” UN Resident Coordinator for Yemen Lise Grande said as the first humanitarian flight was prepared to depart from the war-torn country.