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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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 distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

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

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

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

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