Yesterday, Israel began its long-threatened attack on Rafah, the southern Gaza city that 1.4 million Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been corralled into over the past half year on the basis that it would be safe from Israeli attack. Israel began this offensive shortly after its officials across the political spectrum rejected a cease-fire agreement put forward by Qatar and Egypt, mere hours after Hamas agreed to it.

The deal would have led to the release of Israeli hostages in return for an indefinite end to the war, but Israeli officials charged that its terms were “far from” their “obligatory demands.” That was two days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu anonymously told the press on May 4 that “Israel will under no circumstances agree to end the war as part of an agreement to free our abductees.” Now, without even hiding behind anonymity, Netanyahu has unabashedly and publicly vowed to go into Rafah “with or without a deal.” One US official told Reuters that Israeli officials “have not appeared to approach the latest phase of negotiations [with Hamas] in good faith.”

These are the plain facts of the situation: a deal was on the table that would have freed Israeli hostages, Hamas agreed to it, but Israeli leadership rejected it because those leaders oppose ending the war under any circumstances that don’t lead to Hamas’s destruction, leading it to promptly attack Rafah.