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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, 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 second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel 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 different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal