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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

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

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured 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.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath 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 endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

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

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

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

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal