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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel 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 position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader 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 approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

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

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal