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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed 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 expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure 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 UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

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

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal