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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Doha appeared like another escalation that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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

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

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in the latter part of the year into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader 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 "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

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

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

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

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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