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

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

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

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

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

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

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

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed 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 strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

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

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump 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.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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