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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, 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 consistently friendly.

The president often states 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 actions.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel 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 the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will 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 US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

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

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

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

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal