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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

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

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure 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 deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

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

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

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal