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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations 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 remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

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

Trump's distinct approach 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 involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

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

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets 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 Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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