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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

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

The president's distinct approach 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 factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

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

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

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

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

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 official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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