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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

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

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which motivated the president to apply 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 United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where he received consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, 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," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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