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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

The attack on 9 September violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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