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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be 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 seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing 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 his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

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 no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal