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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

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

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst 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 relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - 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 backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal