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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group 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 Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country 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 attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

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

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal