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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships 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.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart 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 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."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to 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 galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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