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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

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

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

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

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal