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The heads of three UN agencies have jointly called on the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen to lift the blockade in place in the war torn zone, warning that untold thousands may die unless it is lifted.

This call was made through a joint statement by the heads of the World Food Programme, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation.

"The cost of this blockade is being measured in the number of lives that are lost," the statement from David Beasley, Anthony Lake and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

"Together, we issue another urgent appeal for the coalition to permit entry of lifesaving supplies to Yemen in response to what is now the worst humanitarian crisis in the world."

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote to Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi to warn him that the blockade was "already reversing the impact of humanitarian efforts," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday.

"The Secretary-General is very much disappointed we've not seen a lifting of the blockade. The Secretary-General and his humanitarian team are heartbroken at the scenes we're seeing from Yemen," Dujarric told reporters.

As of Wednesday, 29 vessels, with 300,000 tonnes of food and 192,000 tonnes of fuel, had been blocked, while U.N. ships carrying $10 million of health and nutrition supplies and 25,000 tonnes of wheat were waiting to berth at Hodeidah, according to another U.N. statement.

"Without fuel, the vaccine cold chain, water supply systems and waste water treatment plants will stop functioning. And without food and safe water, the threat of famine grows by the day," the U.N. agency heads said.