President Joe Biden on Monday said that Gaza’s largest hospital “must be protected”, and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces.

Fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants has encircled the sprawling medical facility, Al Shifa Hospital, prompting thousands to flee.

Shifa has been without electricity and water for three days, and gunfire and bombings outside the compound have made the situation more difficult.

“It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action,” Biden said in the Oval Office.

Battles between Israel and Hamas around hospitals forced thousands of Palestinians to flee from some of the last perceived safe places in northern Gaza, stranding critically wounded patients, including newborns, and their caregivers with dwindling supplies and no electricity, health officials said on Monday.

The Israeli military has urged Palestinians to flee south on foot through what it calls safe corridors. But its stated goal of separating civilians from Hamas militants has come at a heavy cost: More than two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes. Thousands fled Gaza’s Shifa Hospital over the weekend as Israeli troops encircled it, but hundreds of patients and displaced people remain, officials say.