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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, 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 at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations 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 leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert 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 the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal