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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities 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.

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

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

But, as with many 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.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

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

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

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

Business History Helped 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 deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

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

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal