ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Mortar shells fired by rebels of the Houthi group landed on a popular market in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, leaving 3 civilians killed, a media official said Wednesday.

The local medical official based in Hodeidah told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that "the hospital received three civilian bodies as a result of random shelling against a popular market in Tuhyata district on Tuesday."

He added that the pro-government hospital received also seven injured people while other cases with serious wounds were transferred to the southern port city of Aden to receive treatment.

Meanwhile, a statement revealed by the pro-government Giants Brigades said that the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels shelled Muteena popular market while it was crowded with shoppers, leaving casualties among innocent civilians.

Yemen's Minister of Information, Muamar Eryani, strongly condemned the Houthi mortar shells attack that targeted the popular market in Hodeidah despite the cease-fire brokered by the United Nations in Hodeidah.

Hodeidah, the lifeline of Yemen's most commercial imports and humanitarian aid, has become the focal point of the Saudi-led coalition's war in Yemen since 2015.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to support the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthi rebels forced him into exile and seized much of the country's north, including the capital Sanaa and Hodeidah.

The four-year civil war in Yemen has pushed more than 12 million people to the verge of starvation and created what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Yemeni warring parties reached a peace deal in Stockholm last December. They have partially held the cease-fire deal in Hodeidah but failed to withdraw their forces.

The Houthi rebels continue to fortify themselves inside Hodeidah while the Saudi-backed government troops have been gathering on the southern and eastern outskirts.