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

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

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

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israeli government, and indirectly with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to do with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will release all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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