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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say 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 matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

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

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal