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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, 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 key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

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

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president 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.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited 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 most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants 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 the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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