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At first, the Israeli aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of a ceasefire further away.

The attack on 9 September breached the territorial integrity of an US partner and threatened expanding the hostilities into a broader regional conflict.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a objective that he, and President Joe Biden previously, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

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

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

However, as with many diplomatic achievements, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

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

Trump often states that the nation has no better friend, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". Moreover these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

Throughout his initial time in office, the president moved the American diplomatic mission in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and discarded a traditional American stance that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the view under global norms.

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

Those public demonstrations of backing may have allowed the president the leeway to apply more influence on Israel in private. According to reports, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in return for the release of a number of captives.

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

Trump displayed a level of determination and pressure on an Israel's leader that is virtually unprecedented, says an analyst of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "It's unheard of of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that they must agree or else."

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

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the United States had to support Israel openly in order to enable it to moderate the nation's military actions behind closed doors.

Underneath this was the president's nearly half-century of backing for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Every step Biden took risked dividing his own domestic support, while Trump's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to act.

Ultimately, internal considerations or individual ties may have had little impact than the simple fact that, throughout his term, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Several months into Trump's second term, with the Islamic Republic weakened, the militant group to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted the president to deliver an final demand to Netanyahu. Hostilities had to end.

Trump had given the Israeli military a significant latitude in Gaza. He lent US armed support to Israel's campaign in Iran. However an attack on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, moving him closer to the stance of Arab nations on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which motivated the president to exert full force to finalize an agreement.

This US president's strong connections with the Gulf states are widely known. Trump has commercial interests with the emirate and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to Saudi Arabia. Recently, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the UAE, was the most significant diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

His visits he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula in recent months contributed to shift his perspective, according to Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president was present nearby as Netanyahu himself called Qatar to express regret. Subsequently, the Israeli leader gave approval on Trump's comprehensive proposal for Gaza - one that additionally had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart gave him the room to influence Israel to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their backing, and helped them persuade the group to agree to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that the US leader developed leverage with the Israelis, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of earlier administrations have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

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

Now the Israeli government has agreed to releasing over a thousand Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a limited pullback from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the captives still held, living and dead, taken 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 devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 {Palestinians|Pal