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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

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

Now Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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