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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

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

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

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

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - 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 pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal