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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led 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 pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

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

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties 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 he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal