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

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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