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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president'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, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

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

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press 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 business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"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 previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

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

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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