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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence 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 literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end 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. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused 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