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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal 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 key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

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

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of 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 approach" held that the US had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain 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, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

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

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal