“The state of Israel is crying and mourning the deaths of our three hostages,” says Benjamin Netanyahu, who is speaking at a news conference.
“It has broken my heart, it has broken the entire nation’s heart.”
He says they were so close to returning home, but the distance between victory and disaster is “tiny”.
The Israeli prime minister says he met the widow of a soldier killed in battle, and he knows that the pain is “like a dagger in your heart but they did not fall in vain”.
There has been international pressure to stop the fighting but “we are determined to continue all the way to the very end” until “there will be no authority that will continue training for terror” in Gaza, he says.
He says he will “not let” the Palestinian Authority control Gaza “the day after”.
“After we have eradicated Hamas and Gaza will be demilitarised under the control of Israel there will be no-one who will educate their children to annihilate Israel,” says Mr Netanyahu.
Israeli defence minister: ‘I bear responsibility for hostage deaths’
Defence minister Yoav Gallant has now taken to the podium.
He says it is a “terrible” evening and the entire of Israel “feels the pain” of the hostages mistakenly killed.
Mr Gallant says he has spoken with their families and says he “bears responsibility for everything that is happening… in this war.”
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