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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked widening the conflict 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 Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

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

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

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

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

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality 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, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks 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 support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

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

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal