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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Doha appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

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

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, 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 "most supportive friend in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the room to apply more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

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

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed 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 Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

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

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