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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner 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 agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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