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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

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

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, 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, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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