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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 prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

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

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to 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."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain 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 Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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