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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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