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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north 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 killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated 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 commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including 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 helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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