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

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

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

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

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

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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