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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like 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 conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

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

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 worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be 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 Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

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

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

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

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"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 appears to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal