It passes for a truism in the Middle East that ceasefires are arranged as a courtesy to the combatants – enabling them to reload. Thus, when the six-months-old truce between Hamas and Israel expired this month it surprised no one when fighting resumed. What does surprise is that nobody seems to have lifted a finger to try to stop it.

The disproportionate scale of Israeli air strikes, in response to the pinprick provocations of the home-made rockets fired from Gaza at southern Israeli towns, is less surprising. It fits the Israeli doctrine of overwhelming force, which on Saturday claimed the highest number of Palestinian lives in a single day since Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six Day War.