Sometimes (more often than I’d like) I get grief for stating the obvious.

That’s unfortunate. It’s also odd. As far as stating things aloud, the obvious should have blanket immunity. Not so in my experience.

The obvious is admittedly uncomfortable in some contexts, the conduct of the war in Gaza being one of them. Stating the obvious as it relates to the war is an especially perilous endeavor when you’re writing for public consumption.

But the other thing about the obvious is that it tends to be unavoidable. And Benjamin Netanyahu obviously doesn’t care about the remaining Israeli hostages. It that’s too harsh, we can fairly suggest they’re a secondary concern on empathetic days. Netanyahu doesn’t have many of those.

Earlier this week, a few hours after the Israeli military dropped leaflets on eastern Rafah informing locals that if they don’t want to be killed with their families, they should get out of dodge (that’s not quite how the IDF put it, but it’s close), Hamas accepted the terms of a cease fire brokered by Egypt and Qatar.

Forget the specifics of the proposal. They don’t matter. Because Netanyahu’s war cabinet rejected the offer almost immediately. Limited air strikes on Rafah were the exclamation point. (“No.” Kaboom. “No!”)

As it turns out, Hamas informed negotiators on Monday that some of the hostages who’d be released in the first phase of a multi-stage cease fire were in fact already free. Where “free” means dead.

Specifically, Israel’s demands for the first hostage-for-prisoner exchange stipulated that Hamas would release 40 women, elderly men and anyone who’s sick. After a subterranean roll call, Hamas said that wasn’t feasible because, as The New York Times put it, the group “did not hold that many who fit the criteria,” and among those who did, some were dead. It was unclear whether the group put a number on the deceased.

This is macabre in the extreme. Obviously, Israel wants the bodies back. Hamas knows that, so the group’s storing the corpses in the tunnels with them. I can only assume they don’t have the proper equipment down there to preserve the bodies. So, they’re rotting. The bodies. Underground. In rooms adjoining the holed-up fighters, some of whom are likely also dead. These are catacombs.

Of course, everyone knew some (and quite possibly many) of the remaining captives were dead, but as the Times went on to say Tuesday, “the news that the first group of hostages to be released would include remains… will surely upset families who have been pressing the Israeli government to do more to free their loved ones.” Yes, “surely.”

Let’s not kid ourselves: Netanyahu probably could’ve secured the release of all the hostages (save perhaps any male soldiers Hamas might be holding), months ago. The excuse from the Israeli side’s always the same. Summarized, simplified and stylized, it goes like this: If we agree to a cease fire that’s too long in order to free as many of the hostages as we can, Hamas will “regroup” and “reconstitute.”

But “regroup” and “reconstitute” for what, exactly? These are militants, they aren’t a military. That’s an important distinction. The IDF currently occupies northern Gaza. With tanks. What could a “reconstituted” Hamas possibly accomplish strategically during a cease fire long, short or in-between? Are they going to draw up plans for a counteroffensive aimed at recapturing Gaza City? With what? The cavalry? Are they going to come up out of the ground in Rafah, commandeer the local donkey drove and ride them north playing Wagner through a boombox?

Netanyahu can have his hostages and eat Hamas too. All he has to do is agree to a cease fire stipulating their release then, once they’re home, fabricate a pretext to finish the job in Rafah. It’s not as if Hamas won’t give him one, and even if they don’t, since when does the IDF care about bad optics? They could just claim they intercepted radio chatter about a rocket attack and call that a reason to break the cease fire.

The problem for Netanyahu in bringing the hostages home is that once they’re free, public support for the war effort might wane, particularly given that the IDF’s reached the point of diminishing returns when it comes to the trade off between dismantling Hamas’s operational capacity and torpedoing Israel’s international reputation, which is collapsing under the weight of 35,000 dead Palestinians. Once the war’s over, what does Netanyahu have left politically? Not a lot.

It goes without saying (and this is me stating the obvious again) that the longer this continues, the more of the hostages will die. This looks, on some days, like Netanyahu’s employing the Keyser Soze home invasion strategy. (I won’t elaborate, but if you’ve seen The Usual Suspects, you know what I mean.)

Late Monday, after Israel rejected Hamas’s offer, protesters blocked streets and marched on Netanyahu’s official residence in Jerusalem carrying a banner that read, “The blood is on your hands.” On the Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv, demonstrators shouted, “Bibi is abandoning the hostages.”

Hours later, Israeli tanks took control of the Rafah border crossing, which the IDF said was being used for “terrorist purposes.” Four Israeli soldiers were killed Sunday in a mortar attack originating from the area.

In a statement Tuesday, the IDF said it killed “approximately 20 terrorists” in and around Rafah and dug up “three tunnel shafts.” No Israeli soldiers were injured in the operation.