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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem 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 air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

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

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal