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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective 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 disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

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

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

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

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal