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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

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

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement 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 Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman 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 problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss 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