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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the hope of peace further away.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Negotiations seemed to be collapsing.

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

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

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

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 crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world seem to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, the US leader directed American aircraft 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 apply more influence on the Israeli government behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured Netanyahu to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and insistence on an Israel's leader that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" held that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's military actions in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own political backing, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

In the end, internal considerations or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, throughout his term, the Israeli government was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Several months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its major strategy objectives had been achieved.

Commercial Background Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but no Hamas officials, led the president to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

The US leader had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in Iran. But an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed the press that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader'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 both his presidential terms with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the a policy institute. 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 conflict.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the prime minister signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the area.

If the president's alliance with Netanyahu gave him the room to influence the government to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to achieve this on his own schedule, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and he appears to do with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in the nation than the prime minister himself was an advantage that Trump employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently the Israeli government has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the captives still held, living and dead, captured in the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israelis.

A conclusion to the conflict, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal