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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha seemed like another intensification that drove the hope of peace further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

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

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout 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 significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal