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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it turned out to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, declared by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued 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 remain to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this success.

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

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

Publicly, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump often states that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel 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 view under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the room to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

After Israel attacked against Syria's military in the summer, including bombing a Christian church, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

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 Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

A number of administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, he also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president sat nearby as the prime minister himself phoned the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

Assuming the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things 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. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump used to his advantage, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to freeing over a thousand Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal