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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald 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 the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister 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 leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas 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, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president sat close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal