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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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