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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, 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 Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal