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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

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

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

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

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

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

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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