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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal