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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

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. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

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 his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal