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

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister 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 strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told 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 Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal