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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway 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 temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

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

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal