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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a objective that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

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 worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has described him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel attacked against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling 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" held that the United States had to embrace Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a local national but no Hamas officials, led Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to end.

The US leader had given Israel a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an strike on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed media outlets 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 Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he heard consistent appeals 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 Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to influence Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

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

The reality that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

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

A conclusion to the war, which has led to the devastation of the territory and the fatalities of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal