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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

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

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply 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 Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

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

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons 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 death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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