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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

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

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," 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 demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, 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 Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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