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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover 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 long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

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

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

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

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal