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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

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

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed US bombers to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

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

Trump displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, 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, prompted the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms 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 several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, 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 gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal