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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

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

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence 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 American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

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

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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