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

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties That Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are against international law, the view under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even hitting a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "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 connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's solid Republican base provided him more room to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader heard repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu provided him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that evidently occurred 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. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal