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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader 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 approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour 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 Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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