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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft 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 Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued 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 the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing 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 turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve 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 appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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