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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

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

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, 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.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug 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 Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal 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 death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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