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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, 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 they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

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

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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