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

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of 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 strained.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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