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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, 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.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed the president the room to exert more influence on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of 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 significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

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

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do with some success."

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

Currently Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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