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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that drove the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, 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 eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements at play beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

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

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered US bombers to strike the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the leeway to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" held that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Underneath this was Biden's decades-long of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while 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, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had allowed 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 completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to do with some success."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

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

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal