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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

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

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact 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 greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets 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 Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal