Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.
The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.
Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.
However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.
This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.
It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.
Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.
Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.
But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.
In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.
Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.
Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.
After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.
These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.
When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.
Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."
Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.
His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.
Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.
Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.
Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.
The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an final demand 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 strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.
A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.
This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.
The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.
His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula 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 United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.
Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.
If Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.
"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."
The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.
Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.
Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 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
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