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

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - 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 contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal