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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

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

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing 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.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

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

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom 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 was present nearby as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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