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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of will 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 American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

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

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

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 attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

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

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal