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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure 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 US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to embrace 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 backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

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

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

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

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