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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

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

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel openly 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 the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led 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. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

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

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