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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar appeared like another escalation that drove the hope of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

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

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

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

During his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in the country from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" held that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step the leader took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

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

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

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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