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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

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

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

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

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

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

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president sat nearby as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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