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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, 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 administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

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

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests 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 Doha and Abu Dhabi.

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

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

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

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal