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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, 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 actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

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

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

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.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal