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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

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

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century 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 flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

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

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal