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Initially, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

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

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, announced by Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are against international law, the position under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of backing may have given the president the leeway to apply more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even hitting a place of worship, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

Joe Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to enable it to moderate the country's military actions in private.

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

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter completely, pushing him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have informed the press that this was a turning point which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, says 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 UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that attack on the city, the president was present close as Netanyahu personally phoned the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince 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 the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle with some success."

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

Now the Israeli government 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 remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the death of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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