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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "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 connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration'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.

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

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president 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 United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

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

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal