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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment 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 sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "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 connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

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

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter 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 turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar 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 biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity 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 much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal