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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements 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 target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel 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 exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader 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 they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 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