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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

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

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree 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 US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point 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 business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

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

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

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

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal