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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that he, 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 Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements 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 the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

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

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of 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 local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to do relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 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