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

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this agreement stands, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that escaped Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in the summer, even hitting a place of worship, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas his successor's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which killed a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided American military might to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

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

The time he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman 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 warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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