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Initially, Israel's air strike on the Hamas delegation in Qatar seemed like another escalation that drove the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

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

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that has led in a agreement, announced by President Donald Trump, to free all remaining hostages.

That represents a objective that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of disarming Hamas, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal are still to be worked out.

Yet if this agreement stands, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his administration.

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Arab world seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

However, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also factors involved beyond the control of both leaders.

A Close Relationship That Eluded Biden

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

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called Trump as Israel's "most supportive friend in the US presidency". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in the summer, Trump ordered US bombers to target the Iran's atomic sites with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those public demonstrations of support may have allowed the president the leeway to exert more influence on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's envoy, his representative, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a halt in fighting in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in the summer, including hitting a Christian church, Trump pressured his counterpart to change course.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli leader that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" argued that the United States had to embrace Israel publicly in order to enable 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 conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took risked fracturing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, domestic politics or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was unwilling to make peace.

Eight months into his new administration, with the Islamic Republic chastened, Hezbollah to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza in ruins, every one of its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Assisted Gain Gulf's Backing

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, prompted the president to issue an final demand to the prime minister. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a relatively free hand in the territory. He provided US armed support to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatari territory was a different matter entirely, pushing him towards the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told the press that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to apply maximum pressure to finalize an agreement.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. Trump has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also stopped in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, such as 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 helped change his thinking, according to an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump did not visit the country on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on the city, the president was present close as the prime minister personally called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that also had the support of influential Arab states in the region.

If Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the room to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his past with Arab rulers may have secured their support, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that President Trump developed influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the combatants has been a problem that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump appears to handle relatively successfully."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister himself was leverage that Trump employed to his benefit, he adds.

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

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which caused the loss of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the war, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of over 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal