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

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded 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 contributed in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on Israel 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 a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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