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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

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

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed 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. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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