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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective 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 complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position 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 most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

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

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal