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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.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

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

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president'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. Recently, he also stopped in Doha 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 diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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