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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another intensification that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

This strike on September 9 violated the territorial integrity of an US partner and risked widening the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy appeared to be collapsing.

Instead, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all captives still held.

This is a objective that Trump, and President Joe Biden previously, had pursued for almost 24 months.

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

But if this deal holds, it could be Donald Trump's defining accomplishment of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his administration.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this breakthrough.

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

Strong Ties Which Eluded Biden

Publicly, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

The president likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president moved the US embassy in the country from its former location to the contested capital and discarded a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, the view under global norms.

After the Israeli military began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

These visible shows of support may have given Trump the room to exert more influence on the Israeli government in private. As per sources, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, including bombing a place of worship, the US president pressured his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader exhibited a level of will and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an US leader directly instructing an Israeli leader that you're going to have to comply or else."

Joe Biden's connection with Netanyahu's government was consistently more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation openly in order to allow it to moderate the country's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took endangered dividing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's loyal conservative voters provided him more flexibility to act.

In the end, internal considerations or individual ties may have had less importance than the reality that, during his term, the Israeli government was not ready to reach an agreement.

Several months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and Gaza devastated, all its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in Doha, which resulted in the death of a local national but not the intended targets, led Trump to issue an final demand to the prime minister. The war had to end.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several administration figures have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with the emirate and the United Arab Emirates. The president began both his presidential terms with official trips to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's Abraham Accords, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the biggest foreign policy success of his first term.

His visits devoted in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months helped shift his perspective, according to an expert of the a policy institute. Trump did not visit the country on this regional tour but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the state where the leader received repeated calls to bring an end to the conflict.

Less than a month after that attack on the city, Trump was present close as the prime minister personally called Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to influence the government to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade Hamas to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that evidently occurred was that the US leader developed influence with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with Hamas," notes Jon Alterman of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the warring sides has been a challenge that many previous presidents have faced, and Trump seems to handle with some success."

The reality that the president is far better liked in Israel than the prime minister personally was an advantage that he employed to his advantage, he adds.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has consented to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of over 1,200 Israelis.

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