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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, 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.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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