At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.
The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.
Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.
However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.
That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.
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.
Yet if this deal stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.
Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.
But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.
A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had
Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.
The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.
Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country 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 Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.
Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.
After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.
Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."
Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more strained.
His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States 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 support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.
In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.
Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.
Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States
The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.
Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.
Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president 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 commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.
The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant 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 Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.
Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu 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 influential Arab states in the area.
Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.
"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."
The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.
Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.
Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.
A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal
