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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is 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 remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

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

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath 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. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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