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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government 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.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president 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 occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback 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 the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal