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

The attack on September 9 breached the territorial integrity of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and complete Israeli pullout are still to be negotiated.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump relocated 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 view under global norms.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed US bombers to target the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These visible shows of support may have allowed Trump the room to apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. 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 Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in the summer, even bombing a Christian church, the US president urged Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more strained.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his political base over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout Biden's presidency, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. However an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, 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 decisive moment which motivated the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Qatar and the UAE capital.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the most significant foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the capitals of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not travel to the country on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president sat close as the prime minister himself phoned Qatar to apologise. 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 support of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and helped them persuade Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the combatants has been a challenge that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to handle with some success."

The fact that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Now the Israeli government has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

The group will free all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, taken during the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has led to the devastation of Gaza and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal