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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

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

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war 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 Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst 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 desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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