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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald 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 warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced 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 killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to 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 galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do 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 Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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