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At first, Israel's air strike on the Hamas militant negotiating team in Qatar appeared like yet another escalation that pushed the hope of a ceasefire out of reach.

This strike on September 9 breached the sovereignty of an American ally and risked widening the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy seemed to be collapsing.

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

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had pursued for almost 24 months.

This marks just the initial phase towards a lasting resolution, and the specifics of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

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

The president's unique style and key alliances with the Israeli government and the Middle Eastern nations appear to have played a role in this success.

But, as with many foreign policy wins, there were also elements involved beyond the influence of either man.

A Close Relationship Which Eluded Biden

In public, Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are consistently friendly.

The president often states that the nation has no greater ally, and Netanyahu has called him as the country's "most supportive friend in the White House". And these positive statements have been backed up by deeds.

During his initial time in office, the president relocated the US embassy in Israel from its former location to Jerusalem and abandoned a traditional American stance that Jewish communities in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under global norms.

When the Israeli military began its bombing campaign against Iran in June, Trump directed American aircraft to strike the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its largest non-nuclear weapons.

Those visible shows of backing may have given the president the room to apply more influence on Israel behind the scenes. As per sources, the president's negotiator, his representative, pressured Netanyahu in late 2024 into agreeing to a halt in fighting in return for the release of some hostages.

After Israel launched strikes against Syria's military in July, even bombing a place of worship, Trump urged Netanyahu to change course.

The leader exhibited 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. "There is no example of an American president directly instructing an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

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

The Biden team's "bear hug strategy" held that the United States had to embrace the nation publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct behind closed doors.

Beneath this was Biden'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 fracturing his own political backing, while Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to act.

In the end, domestic politics or individual ties may have had little impact than the reality that, throughout his term, Israel was unwilling to reach an agreement.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran weakened, Hezbollah to its northern border greatly diminished and the coastal strip in ruins, every one of its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business History Helped Secure Support from Arab States

An Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, which resulted in the death of a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, led Trump to issue an ultimatum to the prime minister. Hostilities had to stop.

Trump had allowed the Israeli military a significant latitude in the territory. The president provided American military might to Israeli operations in the neighboring country. However an attack on Qatar soil was a separate issue completely, pushing him towards the Arab position on how best to conclude the conflict.

A number of Trump officials have told media outlets that this was a turning point which galvanised the leader to exert full force to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Arab monarchies are widely known. He has business dealings with the emirate and the UAE. He began each of his administrations with official trips to the kingdom. This year, Trump also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His normalization agreements, which established ties between the Jewish state and a number of Arab nations, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his initial presidency.

The time devoted in the cities of the Gulf region earlier this year contributed to shift his perspective, says an expert of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not travel to Israel on this Middle East trip but went to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where the leader heard consistent appeals to put a stop to the conflict.

Within weeks after that Israeli strike on Doha, the president sat close as the prime minister personally phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader gave approval on the president's comprehensive proposal for the territory - one that additionally had the backing of influential Arab states in the region.

Assuming Trump's alliance with his counterpart gave him the ability to pressure Israel to reach an agreement, his history with Muslim leaders may have ensured their backing, and helped them convince the group to commit to the arrangement.

"A key factor that clearly happened was that the US leader gained leverage with the Israeli government, and through intermediaries with the militants," says an analyst of the a research center.

"This was crucial. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the demands of the warring sides has been a problem that many earlier administrations have struggled with, and he appears to handle relatively successfully."

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

Currently Israel has agreed to freeing over a thousand detainees held in its jails and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will free all the remaining hostages, living and dead, captured during the initial October 7 assault, which caused the loss of more than 1,200 Israeli citizens.

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