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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that Trump, 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 agreement holds, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that escaped Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and key alliances with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

But, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under international law.

After the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the nation's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of support may have given Trump the leeway to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a degree of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, 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 relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to influence the country's military actions in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Every step the leader took risked fracturing his own political backing, whereas his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted Trump to deliver an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the a policy institute. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence 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 own schedule, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in the nation than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has committed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

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