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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

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

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality 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, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain 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, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal