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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during 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 greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal