Updated

A leading international rights group has urged Yemen's Shiite rebels to stop their missile attacks on Saudi Arabia while at the same time criticizing the kingdom's blockade of its impoverished neighbor.

Human Rights Watch said in a report on Monday that Saudi Arabia cannot use the airstrikes by the Houthi rebels as a justification for its blockade of Yemen.

HRW's Mideast director Sarah Leah Whitson says the "Saudis can't use Houthi rockets to justify impeding life-saving goods for Yemen's civilian population."

A Saudi-led coalition of mostly Arab states has been at war with the Houthis since 2015, imposing a devastating blockade on the country.

Houthis, who control most of northern Yemen along the Saudi border, fired seven ballistic missiles into the kingdom on March 26, killing one person.