Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.
The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.
Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.
However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.
This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.
This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.
But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.
Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.
However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.
Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.
The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.
Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.
After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.
These visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.
When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.
Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "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 connection with the Israeli administration was always more strained.
His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.
Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.
Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.
Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.
The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.
The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.
A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.
The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.
The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.
His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.
Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.
If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.
"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to do with some success."
The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.
Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.
The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.
A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal
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