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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, 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 significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, 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 shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal