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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That 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 described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming 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 support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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