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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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 Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet 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.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to 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 the Israeli administration was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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