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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

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

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

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

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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