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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and President 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, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

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

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas 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, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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