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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

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

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

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

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

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 first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

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

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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