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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

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

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader 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 prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits 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. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do 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 he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal