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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas 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 American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes 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 combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal