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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued 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 agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, 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."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country'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 Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to 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, 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, the president was present close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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