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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

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

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal