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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His 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.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal