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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply 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 the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised 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 United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal