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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

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

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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