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

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

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

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

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 negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

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

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

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal