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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location 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 Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal