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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure 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 American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked 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 his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump 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 foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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