JERUSALEM - Israel enjoys U.S. support for its goals of destroying Hamas and recovering hostages held by the Palestinian militants but the allies differ about what might follow the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

Reiterating his past refusal to countenance a return to Gaza rule of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority under President Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu said in a statement that Gaza "will be neither Hamas-stan nor 'Fatah-stan'". Fatah is Abbas's faction.

(Writing by Dan Williams;)