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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst 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."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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