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

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and 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 Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position 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 June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, 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, the president sat close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal