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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase 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 agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

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

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump urged 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 relationship with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

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

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. 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 earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Now Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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