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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

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

Throughout 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 occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump 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 war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

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

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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