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

The attack on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, 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 Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations 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 his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, 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 evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

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

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

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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