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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

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

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal