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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still 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.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump'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 helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during 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 devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal