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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites 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, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's 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 initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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