Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday he wanted to maintain “military pressure” against the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip, despite the grief caused in Israel by the deaths of three hostages by “accidental” fire by Israeli soldiers.

The news “broke my heart. It broke the heart of the whole country,” he told a news conference.

“Despite the deepest sadness, I want to clarify one thing: military pressure is necessary both to return the hostages and to ensure victory over our enemies,” he stressed.

“Only maintaining military pressure will allow the release of all our hostages,” he added.

“The instructions I give to the negotiating team are based on this pressure, without it we have nothing.”

These statements were made the day after the announcement of the death of the three hostages, who were “accidentally” killed by the Israeli army in Gaza. The hostages were holding a white flag and spoke in Hebrew, the military said.

Families of hostages on Saturday called on the government to quickly present a new negotiation plan for their release, more than two months after the start of the war with Hamas and continued shelling of the Gaza Strip.

The Islamist group announced on Saturday that its position was to refuse “any negotiation on the exchange of prisoners unless the attack on our people stops completely”.

“The movement communicated its position to the mediators,” Hamas added in a statement, without elaborating.

“After the destruction of Hamas, the (Gaza) Strip will be demilitarized and will be under the security control of Israel and there will be no more elements there to threaten us,” Netanyahu reiterated.