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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out 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 Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump'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 most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, 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 international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader 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 the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

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

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present close as the prime minister himself called Qatar 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 influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal