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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

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

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, 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, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped 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 most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, 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.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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