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At first, the Israeli air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

Instead, it proved to be a key moment that culminated in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

That represents a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

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

Trump's unique style and key alliances with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this success.

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

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president often states that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the US presidency". And these warm words have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the view under global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of support may have given the president the room to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including hitting a Christian church, Trump urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of determination and insistence on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an US leader literally telling an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

His administration's "bear hug approach" held that the United States had to support Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's decades-long of support for the state, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its immediate north significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Business History Helped Secure Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. The president provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter completely, moving him closer to the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. This year, Trump also visited in Qatar and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat close as the prime minister himself called Qatar to express regret. And later that day, 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 area.

If Trump's relationship with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure the government to reach an agreement, his past with Muslim leaders may have ensured their support, and helped them convince the group to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says 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 warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than the prime minister personally was leverage that Trump used to his advantage, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a limited pullback from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the conflict, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal