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

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is 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 complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader 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 prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar 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 area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade 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," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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