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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that drove the hope of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government 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 release of some hostages.

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

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

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

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

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 issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

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

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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