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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

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 worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal