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

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, even hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump 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. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an strike on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present close as the prime minister personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump gained influence with the Israeli government, and indirectly with the militants," notes an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

The group will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, taken in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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