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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, 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 the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

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

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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