Israel will be watching "very closely" to see if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will condemn Thursday's Kassam rocket fire on Sderot in his public comments with US President Barack Obama later today, a senior government official said.
During Operation Pillar of Defense, the official said, Abbas "stubbornly refused to do so. He even refused to disassociate himself from those attacks."
The official said Israel will also be watching whether Abbas will cease Fatah's unity talks with Hamas. "These rockets were launched from territory controlled by Hamas, and Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and support peace," he said.
Israel has not yet issued a formal response to the attacks. One government official said that Abbas cannot say he is a "peace-maker" while staying silent when rockets are being fired on Israel.