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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, 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 Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

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

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed 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 Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants 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 Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal