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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

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

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as the country'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 American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader 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 commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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