WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is ending air refueling flights for the Saudi military campaign in Yemen and preparing sanctions against Saudis linked to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, current and former American officials said on Friday. The moves would impose a limited punishment on the kingdom.

The steps appear calibrated to respond to international outrage over the death of Mr. Khashoggi and to thousands of civilian deaths in the Yemen war, but avoid directly punishing the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and could head off tougher congressional action.

Mr. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government who wrote for The Washington Post and lived in Virginia, was killed last month in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by what the Turkish government has described as a kill team dispatched from Riyadh, the Saudi capital. President Trump has called the killing of Mr. Khashoggi a “very sad thing, very terrible thing,” but his administration has signaled it intends to continue working with Prince Mohammed. Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser on the Middle East, is the prince’s biggest supporter in the White House.

On Friday night, hours after The New York Times and The Washington Post reported on the Trump administration’s decision to end the air refueling flights, the Saudi-led coalition waging war on Houthi rebels in Yemen announced that it would do the refueling on its own. This came after “consultation with the United States,” it said.