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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a objective 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 disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence 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 literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

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

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

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

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

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