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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations 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 remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

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

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

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

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - 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 Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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