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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, 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.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal