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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that the nation 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 backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller 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 strained.

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

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

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 the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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