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

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

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

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

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

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

The leader exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more strained.

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

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

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

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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