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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar 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 expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

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

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

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

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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