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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation 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 widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

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

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

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

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

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

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

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

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

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

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal