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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal