The international community urgently needs to revisit its posture on the war in Yemen and put pressure on all parties to end the conflict and address the humanitarian catastrophe.

The news that a humanitarian pause in the fighting in Yemen may start July 10 is good news. But a pause is not enough. Yemen needs a permanent cease-fire, massive relief and a new international framework to end the war. The United Nations Security Council needs to get to work urgently and not rest on a pause. ​

The United Nations has designated Yemen a level-three systemic humanitarian crisis, the highest level of emergency in the UN's ranking system. According to the United States Agency for International Development, 21 out of 25 million Yemenis are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, of which 20 million need immediate access to water and hygiene and 13 million need food. Relief workers in Yemen report the situation is deteriorating rapidly. They cannot get sufficient aid into the country to stop the downward spiral. Yemeni children are at particular risk.

The poorest country in the Arab world is being blockaded by the richest countries in the Arab world. The Saudi-led air and naval war has cut off Yemen's airports and seaports from significant outside relief. Normally Yemen imports 90% of its food. Little is arriving now. As a consequence, the Yemeni people are suffering, and Riyadh and its allies are stoking a generation of hatred.