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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

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

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, 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 make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal