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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says 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 relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly 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 sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal