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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission 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 illegal, the view under global norms.

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

These visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat 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 Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence 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 literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics 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 Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

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

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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