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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

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

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

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

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

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

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal