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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath 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. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"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 lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal