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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued 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 are still to be negotiated.

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

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

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

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

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

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

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

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

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