North Gaza hospitals cut off, civil defence rescue halted amid Israeli threats and worsening siege

An Israeli siege on three hospitals in northern Gaza has forced all rescue services to grind to a halt with a ferocious assault on the enclave showing no signs of slowing down, Gaza's civil defence said. Gaza's civil emergency service said Al-Awda, Kamal Adwan, and Indonesian hospitals in north Gaza were surrounded by Israeli forces, with patients trapped inside and several medical staff being disappeared. In an urgent appeal last night, the civil defence team said that the situation in the north had become "catastrophic" with rescue and humanitarian services forced to stop, leaving the dead and wounded in the streets with teams being unable to reach them. Three members of the civil defence were hit by a drone in Beit Lahia in a "targeted strike", with their fate unknown. The civil defence said an Israeli tank shelled and destroyed the area's only fire truck.