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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal