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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

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

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of 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 Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However 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.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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