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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

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

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed 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 literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving 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 full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to do with some success."

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

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

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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