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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

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

The leader displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

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

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals 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 personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal