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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump 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 view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

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

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure 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, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities 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 Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

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

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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