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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

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

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel 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 halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader 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 Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal