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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally 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 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 Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman 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 lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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