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

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought 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 agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of 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 strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

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

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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