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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

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

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border 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

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst 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 desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal