News on the Palestinian reconciliation front has taken a positive turn. The first practical steps will feature the creation of a technocratic government responsible for civil affairs in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This development promises to open a new chapter not only in Palestinian governance but also on the diplomatic playing field between Israel and a revitalized Palestinian Authority (PA).

Success always has many authors, but in this case progress on the reconciliation file is the product of an unusual convergence of interests of all the major parties — the Palestinians first and foremost, but also the unlikely trio of Egypt, Israel and the United States. Mousa Abu Marzouk, Hamas’ number two political leader and head of the movement’s reconciliation delegation, is at the center of this circle. His all-but-permanent presence in Gaza is a clear reflection of the wide-ranging support of this unusual coalition for a historic Palestinian rapprochement.

Abu Marzouk has long led Hamas’ reconciliation delegation alongside Fatah’s Azzam al-Ahmad. His active leadership in Gaza of top Hamas officials, notably Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of the Gaza rump of the PA, offers demonstrable evidence of the leading role that Hamas’ exiled leadership is exercising over the reconciliation file. Marzouk’s interest in returning to Palestine is self-evident, but until this round of reconciliation efforts, there was no practical political need for his extended presence there.

Lest it be forgotten, no one moves into and out of Gaza these days without the explicit knowledge and approval of Egypt, which governs access from the south through the Rafah terminal, and of course Israel, which controls movement and access through the Erez crossing in the north. It is Israel, however, that retains the power of life and death over Hamas officials in Gaza.