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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

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

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, 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 area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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