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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal 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 details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded 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.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy 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 illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal