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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas 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 US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, 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 change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal