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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped 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 success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers 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 apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

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

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar 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 the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

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

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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