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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped 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 contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked 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 determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

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

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations 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 finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president was present close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred 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.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned 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 in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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