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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal