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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald 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 the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, 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 relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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