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

This strike on 9 September breached the sovereignty of an American ally and threatened widening the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be in ruins.

However, it turned out to be a key moment that culminated in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

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

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

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 Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of both leaders.

Strong Ties That Biden Never Had

In public, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, the US leader directed American aircraft to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of backing may have given the president the leeway to exert more pressure on the Israeli government in private. According to reports, the president's envoy, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

After Israeli forces attacked against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to alter tactics.

The leader 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. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

His administration's "close embrace approach" argued that the US had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Beneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of backing for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked dividing 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 less importance than the simple fact that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, 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 Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led Trump to deliver an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. But an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of administration figures have informed media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also visited in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which normalised relations between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, such as the Emirates, was the most significant foreign policy success of his initial presidency.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months helped shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present nearby as Netanyahu himself phoned Qatar to apologise. Subsequently, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that additionally had the support of key Muslim nations in the region.

Assuming the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their backing, and helped them convince Hamas to agree to the arrangement.

"A key factor that evidently occurred was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have faced, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

The fact that the president is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was leverage that he employed to his benefit, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will release all the captives still held, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the loss of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the destruction of the territory and the fatalities of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal