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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza 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 second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

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

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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