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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

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

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia 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, the president was present close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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