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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

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

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller 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."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

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

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections 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 Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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