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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

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

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself 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 key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal