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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

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

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

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

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"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 earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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