The Saudi-led coalition bombed Sanaa’s international airport and rendered it unusable for humanitarian aid flights:

Air raids destroyed radio navigation station for aircraft, civil aviation authorities told SABA, which is controlled by the Houthis.

Air traffic in Sanaa’s airport is currently restricted to flights carrying humanitarian aid sent by the United Nations and other international organizations.

Oxfam’s Scott Paul explains the implications of this attack:

Reports now saying Saudi airstrikes targeted and hit navigation system at #Sanaa airport. For past 15 months, only flights in or out were aid flights. No weapons. No military trainers. If true, aid workers are now stranded, & most importantly, many more people in #Yemen will die

— Scott Paul (@ScottTPaul) November 14, 2017

If it wasn’t already obvious, the Saudi-led coalition has confirmed with this latest attack that they are deliberately trying to strangle the civilian population by depriving them of essential food and medicine. Despite reports that the coalition was willing to open some ports in areas they control, the U.N. said today that there is no evidence that any of the ports are being reopened:

The United Nations says there’s “no indication” a Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen’s Shiite rebels is lifting its blockade of Yemeni airports and sea ports as it announced the previous day.

Even if the coalition reopens some ports in other parts of the country, those other ports can’t take in as much as the main port at Hodeidah. Transporting goods overland from other ports will make food and medicine prohibitively costly for an already impoverished population. Nawal al-Maghafi detailed why this is the case:

2) 40% of aid used to go through Hodeidah port which is now blocked. The idea that aid can enter via the border/ or #Oman.. not only means higher delivery costs but means more profiteering my militants inc the #houthis at checkpoints. It also means they have to cross frontlines. https://t.co/qwPamkPUAE

— Nawal Al-maghafi (@BBCNawalMaghafi) November 14, 2017

3) Overnight since the borders were sealed-fuel costs went up by 60%.Which means the price of food, water and electricity goes up. People who didn’t rely on aid now will and #aid barely making it through.Generators keeping vital vaccines alive will now run out of fuel and expire. https://t.co/KWmzhsXW7B

— Nawal Al-maghafi (@BBCNawalMaghafi) November 14, 2017

If Hodeidah remains closed, it won’t matter if the coalition opens the others, because there will still be massive loss of life from starvation. Unless the blockade is lifted very soon, the Saudis and their allies will be the authors of the worst famine in decades, and they will have done it with Washington’s blessing.