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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, 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 a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

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

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured 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 devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal