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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a objective 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, 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 return to office - one that escaped 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 success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of will and insistence 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 literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

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

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

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 committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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