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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister 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 "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

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

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

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

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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