At four this morning, a ceasefire brokered by Egypt between Israel and Hamas after months of clashes in the Gaza strip, came into effect. Given that Israel and Hamas refuse to talk to one another, success of the back-door negotiations through Cairo - they have been going on for months - may be regarded as a breakthrough. That still leaves peace a distant prospect. The history of the 60-years conflict is strewn with failed attempts.
Perhaps this time, a more significant factor in what has seemed to be a never-ending process of hostility took place not in the immediate geographical space of Gaza, Israel and the West Bank but in Senegal, where the divided parties in another conflict - Palestinian versus Palestinian, Fatah against Hamas - were edging towards some form of dialogue.
This had not seemed possible after Hamas seized power in Gaza and forced Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader, to establish what amounts to a "separate state" on the West Bank. For the past year, the irony has been that a people wishing to establish statehood has seen the components of that intended state split into two, one led by Hamas in Gaza, the other headed by Fatah on the West Bank, the former inimical to Israel, the latter seeking peace with Israel.
The enmity between the two Palestinian factions has been no less robust than that between Israel and Hamas. Indeed, up to a few days ago it was touch and go whether they would engage in a civil war as Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and on the offices of President Abbas. Peace between the two is a sine qua non if there is ever to be a settlement with Israel.
The current ceasefire is a pragmatic acceptance by both Israel and Hamas of the reality on the ground. Hamas is admitting to itself just how much the Palestinians in Gaza have been hurt by the impact of Israel's economic blockade. For Israelis it will be a welcome breather from the state of war which its towns and villages close to the border with Gaza have been experiencing as targets of rocket attacks by Palestinian militants operating there. An Israeli government spokesman was quoted as saying that "(today) will be the beginning, we hope, of a new reality where Israeli citizens in the south will no longer be on the receiving end of continuous rocket attacks".
As Israel eases its blockade, initially by allowing restrictions on movement at crossing points with Gaza and, later on, probably next week, commercial crossings, the real talks will start. These will involve Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the EU and be as tortuous as tortuous can be.
There is the matter of the release of the Israeli solider captured two years ago and the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. There is the vital divide between Fatah and Hamas, the fragility created by the existence of so many disparate militant Palestinian groups, the suspicion held by Israel, not to be dismissed lightly, that Hamas will use the ceasefire to gain some form of military advantage.
And that is before the matter of Israel's right to exist and the final borders between it and a Palestinian state are tackled. Not for the first time, the prospect of peace is balanced painfully on a razor's edge.