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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

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

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump 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 diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

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

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal