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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

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

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, 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 view 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 nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of 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.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump 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 visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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