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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

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

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst 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 relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However 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 leader to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal