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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

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

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath 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 the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

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

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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