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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal