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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, 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 objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

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

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss 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