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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

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

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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