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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

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

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

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

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