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Initially, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that drove the hope of peace out of reach.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

However, it turned out to be a pivotal event that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden previously, had sought for almost 24 months.

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

But if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his return to office - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president often states that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has called him as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his initial time in office, Trump relocated the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

After Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump ordered American aircraft to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including bombing a Christian church, the US president pressured Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of will and insistence on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the United States had to support the nation openly in order to allow it to influence the nation's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a significant latitude in the territory. He provided American military might to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatar soil was a separate issue entirely, moving him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have informed the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and the UAE capital.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement 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. Trump did not visit Israel on this regional tour but went to the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

Assuming the president's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure the government to strike a deal, his past with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with Hamas," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

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

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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