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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump 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 global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the room to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to 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."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

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

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