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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

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

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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 key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

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

These visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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