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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, 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.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

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

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If 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 Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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