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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader 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 US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president'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 endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave 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.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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