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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout remain to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president 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 "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present close as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, 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 led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal