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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another intensification that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

This strike on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it turned out to be a key moment that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that Trump, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the specifics of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

Throughout his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

After Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the nation's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

Trump displayed a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "bear hug approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

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

The leader's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. He has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to the kingdom. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, the kingdom and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, Trump sat nearby as the prime minister personally called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. The capacity to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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