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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared 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.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing 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 galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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