Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.
This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.
Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.
Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.
This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.
This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.
Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.
The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.
However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.
In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.
The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.
During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.
After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.
These public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.
After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.
The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."
Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.
The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.
Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.
Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.
Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.
The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.
Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.
A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.
The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited 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 UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.
The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.
Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.
Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.
"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.
"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."
The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.
Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.
Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.
A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal
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