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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Doha appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

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

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have given the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

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

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the deal.

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

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he appears to handle with some success."

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

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held 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 original 7 October assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal