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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence 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 US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

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

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to 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 leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Currently Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal