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

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

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

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal