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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Donald 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 described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, 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, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

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

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal