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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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 details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of determination 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 US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted 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 significant latitude in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president was present close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal