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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, 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 complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

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

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

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

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal