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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

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

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister 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 embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But 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.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent 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 travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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