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

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe 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 embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath 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. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply 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 the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

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

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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