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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

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

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened 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.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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