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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

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

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing 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 strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal