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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations 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 either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

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 they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to 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 apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present close as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president'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 backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman 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 desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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