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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

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 he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be worked out.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

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

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in the summer, Trump directed American aircraft to target the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israel attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a degree of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's connection with the Israeli administration was always more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's decades-long of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, pushing him closer to the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and a number of Arab nations, such as the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. The US president did not travel to the country on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, the kingdom and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the prime minister gave approval on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and Trump appears to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has committed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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