Hamas says US President Biden 'wholly responsible' for Israel's raids in Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital

Hamas has held US President Joe Biden for being “wholly responsible” for the Israeli army operation at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital. “We hold the occupation (Israel) and President Biden wholly responsible for the assault on the Al-Shifa medical complex,” Hamas said in a statement. “The adoption by the White House and the Pentagon of the occupation’s false claim that the resistance is using the Al-Shifa medical complex for military ends has given the green light to the occupation to commit more massacres against civilians,” it added. On Wednesday, Israel raided Hamas terrorists inside the Al-Shifa Hospital asking them to surrender. Israeli forces first raided the surgery and emergency departments, Mohammed Zaqout, the Gaza health ministry’s director of hospitals, told Al Jazeera. Estimates for the number of patients, staff and displaced people inside the hospital complex range from the hundreds to tens of thousands, with true numbers impossible to independently verify. Meanwhile, the White House has reiterated for the safety of Palestinians and staff inside the hospital shortly after the raids began. “We do not support striking a hospital from the air and we don’t want to see a firefight in a hospital,” a National Security Council spokesperson said. The official added that there should not be a situation in which “innocent people, helpless people, sick people trying to get medical care they deserve are caught in the crossfire.” Earlier, the White House had said that US intelligence sources corroborated Israel’s claim that Hamas and another Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, have buried an operational “command and control node” under Al-Shifa. With inputs from agencies