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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

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

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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