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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman 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 lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal