TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is "no way" Israel will halt its war in Gaza — where airstrikes on two hospitals Tuesday killed at least eight and wounded dozens — even if a deal is reached to release more hostages.
Netanyahu's comments are likely to complicate talks on a new ceasefire that had seemed to gain momentum after Hamas released the last living American hostage on Monday in a gesture to U.S. President Donald Trump, who is visiting the region but skipping Israel.
They pointed to a potentially widening rift between Netanyahu and Trump, who had expressed hope that the release of Israeli-American soldier Edan Alexander would be a step toward ending the 19-month war.
The Israeli military on Tuesday struck what it said was a Hamas “command and control center” located beneath a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The strike on the European hospital was the day’s second strike on a hospital, and left at least six people dead and 40 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The dead were taken to Nasser hospital, which Israel struck earlier in the day, saying militants were operating inside it, without identifying them. Two people were killed in that strike.
In comments released by Netanyahu's office Tuesday from a visit to wounded soldiers the previous day, the prime minister said Israeli forces were just days away from a promised escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission. ... It means destroying Hamas.”
Any ceasefire deal reached would be temporary, the prime minister said. If Hamas were to say they would release more hostages, “we’ll take them, and then we’ll go in. But there will be no way we will stop the war,” Netanyahu said. “We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we’re going to the end.”
Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The dispute over whether to end the conflict has been the main obstacle in negotiations going back more than a year.
Israel says 58 hostages remain in captivity, with as many as 23 of them said to be alive, although authorities have expressed concern about the condition of three of them. Many of the 250 hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the war were freed in ceasefire deals.
Comments come after hostage release
Monday's release of 21-year-old Alexander resulted from negotiations between Hamas and the Trump administration that appeared to have largely bypassed Israel, which made no concessions for his release.
Alexander, who was 19 when he was taken from an Israeli army base during the 2023 attack, was the first hostage released since Israel shattered an eight-week ceasefire with Hamas in March and unleashed fierce strikes on Gaza that have killed hundreds of Palestinians.
Israel has promised to intensify its offensive, including by seizing Gaza and displacing much of the territory’s population again. Days before the ceasefire ended in March, Israel blocked all imports from entering the Palestinian enclave, deepening a humanitarian crisis and sparking warnings about the risk of famine. Israel says the steps are meant to pressure Hamas to accept a ceasefire agreement on Israel’s terms.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 57 children had died from the effects of malnutrition since the blockade began on March 2.
A WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, said that if the situation persists, nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition over the next 11 months.
“This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time,” Peeperkorn said.
Netanyahu faces criticism
Alexander’s release created a backlash against Netanyahu, who critics accuse of putting the lives of the hostages in danger by continuing the war. Netanyahu says he is committed to returning all the hostages, destroying Hamas and resettling much of Gaza’s population through what he refers to as “voluntary emigration.”
During a nearly two-hour meeting in Tel Aviv with the families of hostages on Tuesday, the United States' special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Adam Boehler, the Trump administration’s envoy for hostage affairs, said they would do what was needed to bring the remaining hostages home.
Witkoff said everyone would prefer a diplomatic solution and that most hostages had been released through diplomacy. The officials headed to Doha, Qatar, after their meeting to join Trump. Qatar has been a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.
Witkoff said they wouldn’t be traveling to Qatar if they didn’t think there was a genuine chance for progress in negotiations.
Alexander's parents say he told of ‘unimaginable difficulty’ in captivity
Alexander’s parents said in a statement on Tuesday that their son described enduring a harsh captivity that included hunger, lack of water, and “appalling sanitary conditions.”
His mother, Yael, said he feared for his life every day, “but the most terrible sound that Edan feared was the sound of the war going on above their heads. Deafening explosions, the whistles of missiles, the sounds of collapse, collapse, and the earth shaking.”
Alexander’s parents called on Netanyahu to listen to “the vast majority of the Israeli public” and prioritize the return of the remaining hostage. They thanked Trump and his envoys for “their tireless efforts on Edan’s behalf.”
Israel seeking to move Palestinians out of Gaza
Netanyahu has voiced support for a plan proposed by Trump for Palestinians to be moved out of the Gaza Strip after the war - a proposal that has infuriated Palestinians and Arab nations.
“We have put together an administration that will allow them to leave, but the problem with us is one thing — we need receptive countries,” Netanyahu said during his visit to the wounded soldiers Monday. “That’s what we’re working on right now. If you give them the go-ahead, I tell you that more than 50% will leave, and I think much more.”
Israel and the US have been seeking countries willing to take Palestinians who would potentially move out of the territory.
Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in the 2023 attack. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 52,800 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants or civilians.
Israel’s offensive has obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape and displaced 90% of the population, often multiple times.
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Becatoros contributed from Athens, Greece. AP reporters Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem, Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Samy Magdy in Cairo and Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv contributed.
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