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Initially, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar appeared like another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace out of reach.

The attack on September 9 violated the sovereignty of an US partner and risked expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations appeared to be collapsing.

However, it proved to be a pivotal event that culminated in a agreement, declared by Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

That represents a goal that he, and Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

This marks just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be worked out.

But if this deal holds, it could be Trump's defining accomplishment of his return to office - one that escaped Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's unique style and crucial relationships with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations seem to have contributed in this breakthrough.

But, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also factors at play beyond the control of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Biden Never Had

Publicly, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has described Trump as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these warm words have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, Trump moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and discarded a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against the Islamic Republic in June, the US leader ordered American aircraft to strike the Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

These public demonstrations of support may have allowed Trump the leeway to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's envoy, Steve Witkoff, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to 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 Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to alter tactics.

The leader displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, says an analyst 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."

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

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

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as deep disagreements within his political base over the conflict in Gaza. Each move Biden took endangered fracturing his own domestic support, while his successor's solid Republican base provided him more room 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 make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its key military goals had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Gain 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, prompted Trump to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. The president provided US armed support to Israel's campaign in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue completely, 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 turning point which galvanised the president to apply maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

The leader's strong connections with the Arab monarchies are well documented. Trump has commercial interests with Qatar and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, Trump also visited in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and several Muslim states, including the Emirates, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this regional tour but visited the UAE, the kingdom and Qatar where he heard consistent appeals to bring an end to the war.

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

If the president's alliance with his counterpart provided him the ability to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and assisted them persuade the group to agree to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump gained influence with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," notes an analyst of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"That made a difference. His ability to achieve this on his timing, and avoid yielding to the desires of the combatants has been a challenge that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and Trump appears to handle with some success."

The reality that Trump is far better liked in Israel than Netanyahu himself was an advantage that he employed to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in its jails and has consented to a partial withdrawal from the strip.

The group will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which caused the death of over 1,200 Israeli citizens.

An end to the conflict, which has led to the destruction of the territory and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal