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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked 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 President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

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

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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