Netanyahu says 'no way' Israel 'will stop the war' in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says there is "no way" Israel "will stop the war" in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed.

Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday released comments from the prime minister's visit to wounded soldiers the day before, during which he said Israeli forces were just days away from an escalation of force and would enter Gaza “with great strength to complete the mission. ... It means destroying Hamas,” the Associated Press reported.

He said that any ceasefire deal would be temporary.

If Hamas said they would release more hostages, “we’ll take them, and then we’ll go in,” Netanyahu said. “But there will be no way we will stop the war. We can make a ceasefire for a certain period of time, but we’re going to the end.”

Netanyahu's comments to the wounded soldiers were made the same day that Hamas released the last living U.S. hostage.

Also on Tuesday, Israel's military struck what it said was a Hamas “command and control center” underneath a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The strike on the hospital left at least six people dead and 40 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military struck another hospital, killing two people, saying militants were operating inside it, without naming them.