Gaza’s governors rarely miss a chance to flaunt the trappings of power. Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister, a leading figure in Hamas, an Islamist movement once noted for its puritanical modesty, steps from a shiny black Mercedes into one of the strip’s squalid refugee camps to open a repainted clinic. After inspecting a guard of honour, he climbs a podium to greet Hamas’s assembled notables, as a loudspeaker blares out an array of titles and praise. He does not give the impression of a man about to step down.

Perhaps it is unsurprising that neither Hamas in Gaza nor its secular rival, Fatah, which rules the West Bank, seem keen to bow out, despite a much-vaunted reconciliation pact that provides for their replacement with a unity government of technocrats, owing allegiance to neither group, who would rule both parts of a newly declared Palestinian state. Five weeks after signing the agreement in Cairo, the two sides have missed repeated deadlines for creating the government. It may take months before it is in place.”

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