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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, 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 complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position 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 atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

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.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal