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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

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

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded 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 success.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings 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 Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits 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 travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. 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 earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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