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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

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

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to 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 pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president 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 "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal