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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

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

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in the latter part of the year into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader 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 you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

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

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

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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