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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, 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 region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held 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 initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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