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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped 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 breakthrough.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing 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 Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader 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 prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

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

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