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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

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

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

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

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

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

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal