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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

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

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

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission 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 bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

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

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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