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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet 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 distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

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

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

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

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

The leader displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

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

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

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

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

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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