Israel says strikes on Gaza will be ongoing

Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah president of the Palestinian Authority, was told in no uncertain terms that his task was to ensure the “security of Israel” by crushing all resistance to the occupation and regaining control of Gaza from Hamas. Any future Palestinian state was dependent on whether the United States determined that he had carried out this assignment. Implicit in this ultimatum was the threat that if he was not up to the job, Israel would intervene against Hamas.

The Paris donors’ conference that followed Annapolis was a sordid money-raising affair to provide the Palestinian Authority with the funds it needs to take on Hamas.

Israel only held off from launching an assault on Gaza before Annapolis so as not to be blamed for torpedoing the summit. Since then it has felt less constrained, announcing the expansion of the Har Homa settlement in East Jerusalem and ramping up its pressure on Gaza.