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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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 Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, 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 timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal