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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

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

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited 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. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently 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 moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

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

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal