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

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal