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

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

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

Trump exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

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

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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