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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, 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 key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, 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 contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires 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 far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal