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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government 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 freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

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

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations 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.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. 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 consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal