Yemen’s Houthi rebels have again shelled a vital grain storage facility in central Hodeidah, forcing work to temporarily close at the site and potentially jeopardising food aid to thousands of civilians.

The United Nation's World Food Programme said the mills, on the eastern edge of the important port city, were struck on December 26.

"The milling of WFP wheat at the Red Sea Mills near Hodeidah has been temporarily halted after they were hit by artillery fire," a WFP representative told The National.

The WFP said that it did not know who was responsible for the attack, but Col Wathah Al Dubaish of the pro-government Joint Forces said it had been Houthi rebels.

“The rebels targeted the silos of the facility with [a] mortar shell fired from a Houthi post in the centre of the city. The projectile caused partial damage in one of the silos, leading to a full halt in the grinding operations in the facility,” he said.

The attack comes amid tension between the WFP and the rebels over the distribution of grain. The Houthi rebels want the nearly 60,000 tonnes of grain to be distributed by their committees in Hodeidah, a demand rejected by the WFP.

“The rebels deliberately pounded the facility, causing damage to some of the silos and to about 5,000 tonnes of wheat,” Col Al Dubaish said.

He said the facility had been fully operational, with about 200 people working to process and prepare grain for distribution by the WFP.

Last summer, the facility was closed for several weeks during clashes between Houthi rebels and pro-government militias.

The rebels shelled the site, causing damage and preventing aid agencies from reaching the stores to distribute aid. Tonnes of grain rotted during the fighting, exacerbating the already dire situation in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“The assaults prove that the Houthi militia doesn’t care about the worsening humanitarian situation in the country and puts its interests ahead of the suffering of the Yemeni people,” Col Al Dubaish said.

Residents of the port city also said that the last Houthi attack on the Red Sea Mills raised fears of food shortages.

“Nobody can feel our suffering, we mostly depend on the food aid that we receive from the relief organisations and we were waiting for the WFP to distribute the wheat stock stored in the mills facility at the beginning of the new year,” a resident of the city said on condition of anonymity.

“We were shocked to hear that the silos had broken down after the shelling. That means no wheat will be distributed and our situation will get worse and worse.”

They said they believe the Houthis wanted to take the wheat and distribute it so that they can take “the lion’s share for their followers and sell a part of it on the black market".

The UN previously threatened to suspend aid shipments after accusing militias of confiscating and selling aid.

Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar Al Eryani condemned the attack in a statement on Twitter. He pointed out that it came just after UN-mediated talks aboard a ship off the coast of Hodeidah over the situation in the city and the stationing of joint observers to oversee a ceasefire.

“The attack confirms the Houthis' disavowal of their obligations and the continuing ceasefire violations that undermine the efforts to implement the Sweden agreement,” Mr Al Eryani said.

Last December, the government and rebels agreed to a ceasefire in the city. They also agreed that rebels would withdraw from the city and hand over control to local security. The UN would then have overseen shipments of aid through the port.

However, a year after the deal was signed, it has still not been fully enforced, although there has been a reduction in fighting.

The Houthi militia increasingly targeted residential areas in the south of the city in recent weeks.

"On Saturday, local resident Dawood Mohammed Hasan was killed when a Houthi sniper shot him dead in front of his home in southern Hodeidah,” a military source in Al Amalikah brigades said.