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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 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, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal