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

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base 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 his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of 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 allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel 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 capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence 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 timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

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

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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