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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

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

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal