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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of peace out of reach.

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 collapsing.

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

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The fact that the president is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal