Palestinian Civil Defence announced Wednesday it will pull out of northern Gaza, saying its crews, which carry out first responder and search and rescue services, have been targeted by Israeli attacks as they tried to pull survivors — or bodies — from the rubble or offer first-aid to the injured.

The volunteers who work with the agency in northern Gaza have been working under impossible circumstances and doing so without access to crucial supplies, reporters heard at a press conference at the Al-Ahli (Al-Ma’madani) Arab Hospital.

“We are now announcing that the northern Gaza Strip, all of the northern district, the Civil Defence is not providing any humanitarian services, any medical services [in the area],” said Mahmoud Basel, a spokesperson for Palestinian Civil Defence.

First responders targeted

As the Israel-Hamas war rages on, hitting the northern part of the enclave particularly hard, the first responders say they have been the target of Israeli attacks in both the northern and southern parts of Gaza. In the last week, Basel said, eight civil defence members were either targeted by Israeli drones or detained by Israeli Defence Forces while attempting to reach a strike site to look for survivors, put out fires or to offer basic first aid.

Basel said the team moved toward the Indonesian Hospital “based on instructions from the Israeli army.”

“On the way to the site, the occupying forces targeted the team, injuring a number of men and leading to the rest of the group losing contact with us.” 

“We don’t know anything about them,” he said. 

Basel also said that due to the “heavy” bombardment another team was forced to abandon injured civilians while on its way to the Indonesian hospital. 

He said the IDF “is executing” and detaining emergency services, effectively stopping all humanitarian aid in northern Gaza.

In an emailed statement to CBC News, the IDF said its soldiers are only stopping people it suspects of “terrorist activity” and are releasing those “not found to be taking part.”

“The IDF has established comprehensive processes to ensure implementation of the Law of Armed Conflict during active hostilities, which includes the implementation of a highly regulated, multi-tiered process for approving pre-planned attacks against military objectives,” the military said in a statement to CBC News.

400,000 trapped in northern Gaza

In early October, the IDF resumed its assault on the northern part of Gaza in an effort to, it said, weed out Hamas operatives still working in the area. 

Though an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced since the war began a year ago — some more than once throughout the conflict — there are believed to be at least “400,000 people are trapped” in northern Gaza, according to a post to X by Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN aid agency of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

The latest figures from the Gaza health ministry show that almost 43,000 Palestinians have died since the beginning of the conflict. The war began after a Hamas-led attack killed 1,200 people in Israel and saw 250 hostages taken into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. 

In a post to X, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that the ongoing “siege” in northern Gaza is “exhausting all available means for [people’s] survival.” 

“Civilians must be protected and must be able to receive humanitarian assistance,” the post said. 

Israel has consistently denied stopping aid from reaching civilians in the Gaza Strip while the UN maintains that what’s going in is only a “trickle.” 

Three hospitals under siege

As fighting in the north continues, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is on his 11th trip to the region to try to resume ceasefire talks between both parties. Blinken urged Israeli officials to “capitalize” on former Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar’s death to secure the release of remaining hostages and bring the war to an end. 

Speaking to a crowd of journalists outside the Al-Ahli (Al-Ma’madani) Arab Hospital in northern Gaza, Basel made note of a recent detainment by the Israeli army of five civil defence personnel who were going through a checkpoint. 

Basel painted a bleak picture of the situation in the north, ending his press conference by saying the IDF instructed members of Palestinan Civil Defence to leave the area and head south. 

Finally, he said that three hospitals, Al-Awda, the Indonesian and Kamal Adwan, are “completely under siege” with hundreds seeking shelter in them.