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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller 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."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, 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 region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"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 lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal