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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states 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". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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