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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details 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.

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to apply more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

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

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Currently Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal