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

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded 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 the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal