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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

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

These visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal