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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

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

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal