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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

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

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

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

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal