AFP,  SANAA: An air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on the old quarter of the Yemeni capital killed five people yesterday and destroyed three houses in the UNESCO-listed heritage site. Residents said the pre-dawn strike was the first direct hit on old Sanaa since the launch of the bombing campaign against Huthi rebels in late March. The missile hit the Qassimi neighbourhood, which boasts thousands of houses built before the 11th century, an AFP journalist reported.
It did not explode but it still destroyed three three-storey houses and killed five residents, including a woman and a child, medics and witnesses said. The target of the raid was not immediately clear amid conflicting statements from residents about whether rebels had occupied one of the houses hit. The old city has already suffered some damage from air strikes on nearby targets, including the defence ministry, prompting a protest from UNESCO in May. Sanaa's old city, situated in a mountain valley, has been inhabited for more than 2,500 years and was a major centre for the propagation of Islam, boasting over 100 mosques, 14 public baths and more than 6,000 houses built before the 11th century. It was inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1986. Meanwhile, a coalition of 13 aid organisations has called for a permanent ceasefire in Yemen ahead of UN-sponsored talks Sunday on ending a conflict that has affected 80 percent of the population.
The relief groups also called for the lifting of an air and sea blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition that launched a a bombing campaign in late March in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
"What Yemen urgently needs is a permanent ceasefire, an end to the Saudi-led commercial blockade," the groups said in a statement Thursday. They also called for "an end to arms transfers to those responsible for breaches of international humanitarian law, and a sizeable increase in humanitarian and longer term development funding."
A five-day ceasefire last month allowed aid agencies to reach civilians caught in the fighting but UN efforts to extend the truce failed.
A delegation from Hadi's government is to meet with representatives of Shiite Huthi rebels and their allies in Geneva on Sunday in a bid to break the deadlock.
"Regardless of the outcome of the peace talks, the blockade needs to be immediately lifted and all obstacles hindering the provision of humanitarian aid and other essential commodities should be removed," said Priya Jacob, acting country director for Save the Children Yemen.
"Otherwise more children will die from preventable diseases."
The relief groups said 80 percent of the population, or around 20 million people, had been affected by the fighting and were in need of aid.
"That the world continues to sit back and watch as a humanitarian disaster of this magnitude unfolds in Yemen is unacceptable and irresponsible," said Norwegian Refugee Council Yemen director, Hanibal Abiy Worku.
The signatories of the statement also include Care, Oxfam, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and the International Rescue Committee.
The United Nations has described the humanitarian situation in Yemen as "catastrophic", with more than half a million people forced from their homes.