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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment 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 seem to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling 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 strategy" held that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets 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 Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

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

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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