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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

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

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst 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."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says 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 desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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