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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, 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 allowed the president the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

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 country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured 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 developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

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

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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