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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to act.

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

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that the president is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal