Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the hope of peace further away.
This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.
Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.
Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.
This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.
This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.
But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.
The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.
But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.
In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.
Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.
Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.
When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.
Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.
After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.
Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."
Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.
His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.
Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.
Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.
Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.
An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.
Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.
A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.
The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.
His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.
His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.
Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.
If the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.
"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.
"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."
The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.
Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.
Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.
A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal
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