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At first, Israel's aerial attack on the Hamas militant delegation in Qatar seemed like another intensification that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an US partner and threatened expanding the conflict into a broader regional conflict.

Negotiations seemed to be in ruins.

However, it proved to be a key moment that has led in a deal, declared by President Donald Trump, to free all captives still held.

That represents a objective that Trump, and Joe Biden previously, had pursued for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a lasting resolution, and the details of disarming Hamas, administering Gaza and complete Israeli pullout remain to be negotiated.

Yet if this deal stands, it could be Donald Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Joe Biden and his diplomatic team.

The president's distinct approach and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have played a role in this success.

However, as with most foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the control of either man.

Strong Ties Which Biden Never Had

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president likes to say that the nation has no greater ally, and the Israeli leader has called him as the country's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these positive statements have been matched by deeds.

Throughout his first presidential term, the president relocated the US embassy in the country from Tel Aviv to the contested capital and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are against international law, the position under global norms.

When Israel began its bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic in June, Trump ordered US bombers to strike the Iran's atomic sites with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those visible shows of backing may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel in private. As per sources, the president's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, pressured the prime minister in late 2024 into agreeing to a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the freeing of a number of captives.

When Israeli forces attacked against Syrian forces in July, including hitting a Christian church, the US president urged his counterpart to change course.

Trump exhibited a level of determination and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is rarely seen, according to Aaron David Miller of the a think tank. "There is no example of an US leader literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was consistently more strained.

The Biden team's "close embrace strategy" argued that the US had to support the nation openly in order to enable it to influence the country's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was the president's nearly half-century of support for the state, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the conflict in Gaza. Each move the leader took endangered dividing his own domestic support, while his successor's loyal conservative voters gave him more flexibility to manoeuvre.

Ultimately, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had little impact than the simple fact that, during his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, the militant group to its northern border significantly reduced and the coastal strip devastated, every one of its key military goals had been achieved.

Business History Helped Gain Gulf's Backing

The Israeli missile attack in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but not the intended targets, led the president to deliver an ultimatum to the prime minister. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a significant latitude in the territory. The president lent American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an strike on Qatari territory was a separate issue entirely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a decisive moment which galvanised the president to apply full force to get a peace deal done.

The leader's close ties with the Gulf states are widely known. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. The president began each of his administrations with state visits to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and the UAE capital.

The president's normalization agreements, which established ties between Israel and several Muslim states, such as the Emirates, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

His visits he spent in the cities of the Gulf region in recent months contributed to change his thinking, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit the country on this regional tour but went to the United Arab Emirates, the kingdom and the state where he received repeated calls to put a stop to the war.

Less than a month after that attack on Doha, the president was present close as Netanyahu himself called the Qatari leadership to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on the president's 20-point peace plan for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

If the president's relationship with his counterpart provided him the room to pressure the government to strike a deal, his history with Arab rulers may have ensured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the arrangement.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with the militants," notes Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"This was crucial. The capacity to do this on his own schedule, and avoid yielding to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have faced, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The reality that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu personally was an advantage that Trump used to his benefit, the expert continues.

Currently Israel has agreed to releasing over a thousand detainees held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, both alive and deceased, captured in the initial October 7 Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

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