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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, 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 global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu 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, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will 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 directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

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. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

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

An end to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal