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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

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

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

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

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president 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 matched by actions.

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

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to apply more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

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. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing 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 strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden'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 risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

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

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

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

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

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

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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