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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission 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.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the US had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to 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 received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in 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 destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal