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

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped 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 played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, 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 a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal