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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence 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 they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal