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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal