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

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

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

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship 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 enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

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

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, 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 own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

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

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal