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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties 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 official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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