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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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