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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

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

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment 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 Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. 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 foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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