(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Aid agencies said 70,000 people, including 28,000 children, were fleeing Saada. They called for an immediate ceasefire in a statement signed by 17 organisations.
"There is an urgent need to halt hostilities in order to move humanitarian aid to the country," said Daw Mohamed, Yemen country director for CARE International.
The UN's humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Johannes van der Klaauw, said civilians were trapped in Saada and warned of the dangers of "indiscriminate bombing of populated areas".
But coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP planes had avoid bombing civilian targets. "We do not conduct any operation in cities," he said.
Warplanes also launched twin strikes Sunday on the Sanaa residence of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is accused of orchestrating the alliance between renegade army units and the rebels.
These troops, who remained loyal to Saleh after he was forced from power in early 2012, played a major part in the Iran-backed rebels' capture of swathes of the country.
"Following mediation from friendly countries to establish a humanitarian truce... we announce our agreement," said Colonel Sharaf Luqman, spokesman for the pro-Saleh forces.
The defectors' bases have been a major target in the coalition campaign in support of exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.
The rebels welcomed efforts by "friendly countries to end the aggression and the suffering of the Yemeni people" - an apparent reference to Russia which has pressed for a halt to the air war.
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