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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and President 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 disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

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

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly 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 avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

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

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