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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal