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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft 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 exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

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

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations 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 Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

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

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal