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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv 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 international law.

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

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets 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 well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal