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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

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

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller 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."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

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

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support 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.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country 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 war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal