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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured 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 Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant 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 an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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