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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, 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 occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

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

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, 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 capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

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

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

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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