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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought 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 are still to be negotiated.

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

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

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

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

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of determination and pressure 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 American president literally telling 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 approach" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country'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 Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

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.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. The president lent American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving 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 turning point which galvanised the leader to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he used to his advantage, he adds.

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

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal