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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller 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."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

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

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Doha 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 diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," 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 combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal