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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu 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, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters 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 Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic 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.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

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 official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal