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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped 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, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal