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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

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

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated 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 Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

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

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

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.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal