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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to 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 connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background 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 deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position 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 maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

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

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal