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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

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

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal