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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment 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 before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During 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 Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals 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 Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

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

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 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 during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 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