SANAA: Yemen's government said on Saturday its forces were suspending a five-week-long military operation against Shiite rebels in the mountainous north to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month ofRamadan. It also said the suspension would become a permanent ceasefire if the rebels abided by certain conditions. A rebel spokesman said they would "examine" the conditions. The government statement, on defence ministry websitewww.26sep.net, also said the suspension was in response to appeals to allow humanitarian aid into the Saada region, where thousands of civilians have been displaced by the fighting. "The halt in operations comes into force at the time of publication of this communique" at 2:00 am (2300 GMT on Friday), it said. "It has been decided on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of Ramadan," expected to begin on Sunday or Monday and lasting for three to five days. It was not immediately possible to verify whether the fighting had halted. The statement added that a permanent ceasefire would come into effect at 0900 GMT on Saturday if the Zaidi rebels accepted a series of conditions. The main government demand is that they "respect the ceasefire and the opening of roads, evacuate their positions and free captured civilians and soldiers." Sanaa called on the rebels to "respond to the voice of reason and choose peace to bring an end to the spilling of blood." Speaking to Al-Jazeera television, a rebel spokesman said: "We are ready to examine them (the conditions), and that is natural." Mohammed Abdelsalam said the group had already made known its "commitment to a return to the situation as it was -- opening roads, pulling out of our positions and the return of the local authorities." "We do not wish to keep holding our detainees despite the fact that those in power are holding on to their prisoners, in some cases for more than four years," he added. The army launched operation Scorched Earth against the rebels on August 11, and relief groups warned of worsening humanitarian conditions among the tens of thousands of civilians forced from their homes by the fighting. The United Nations estimates that some 150,000 people have been displaced since 2004 by persistent instability in and around northern Yemen's Saada city in the province of the same name. On Thursday more than 80 civilians were killed when air strikes targeted a makeshift camp of displaced people, witnesses said. UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed alarm at the air strikes and called for an immediate end to the fighting. In Geneva, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay called for an inquiry, describing the air raids as "deeply disturbing." The government accuses the rebels of seeking to restore the Zaidi Shiite imamate which was overthrown in a 1962 coup that sparked eight years of civil war. An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority in the north. They are also known as Huthis after their late leader, Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi, who was killed by the army in September 2004.