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

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict 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 agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure 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 UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

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 initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

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

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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