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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

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

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties 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 immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing 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 decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability 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 agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal