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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

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 conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says 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 earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal