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

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several 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 strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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