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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded 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 ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

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

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

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

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss 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