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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, 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 return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister 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, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

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

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal