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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

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

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller 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."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

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

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal