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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace further away.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, 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.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited 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 the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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