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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

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

The leader displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships 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 Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president was present close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal