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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

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

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

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions behind closed doors.

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

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given 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 Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert 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 UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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