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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought 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 remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded 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 many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump 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 position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president sat close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval 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 Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

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

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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