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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like yet another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

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

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

The Biden team'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 backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure 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 issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations 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 a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in 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 devastation of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal