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

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. 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.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller 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 the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

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

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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