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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, 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 he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath 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 Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula 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 Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike 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 the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

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

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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