Story highlights Yemeni official: 28 Yemeni civilians killed in Saudi airstrike

Saudi Arabia denies any involvement in the incident

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) Yemen's rebel-controlled government said that Saudi Arabia was behind an airstrike that killed 28 civilians and injured 17 in a village in northern Hajjah province on Sunday.

Gen. Zakariya al-Khulani of the Yemeni Defense Ministry told CNN that the death toll -- which was was mostly women and children -- was going to rise because there were people still trapped in the rubble, and because of the absence of available emergency medical services in the village of Bani Zela, located about 6 miles from the Saudi border.

A Saudi-led coalition backing President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi's government has been carrying out nationwide airstrikes against the Houthis since March.

A Saudi official denied to Reuters however that the Saudis were involved in Sunday's attack. "This is totally false news," the official, who declined to be identified, told the news agency. "We deny it."

The Iran-aligned Houthis captured the presidential palace in January, plunging the impoverished nation into a chaotic power vacuum. Hadi has been out of the country since the Saudi bombing campaign began.