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

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding 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 agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

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

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed 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 achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal