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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv 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.

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

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"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 lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal