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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope 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.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

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

But if this agreement 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 crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

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

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

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

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present close as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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