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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point 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 Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, 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 warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal