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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, 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 Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

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

These visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

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

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of more than 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